Cause & Reason

Introduction

Intermediate Japanese distinguishes more precisely between positive causes (おかげで — thanks to) and negative causes (せいで — because of/blamed on). These patterns add emotional nuance to your explanations.

Essential for natural-sounding cause-and-effect statements.

Themes

All Japanese Grammar Intermediate in This Chapter (11)

1. ～せい せい A dependent noun used to attribute blame or cause for an undesirable result. It translates as 'because of' or 'due to' with a negative co...
2. ～ことで ことで A compound particle that indicates either the means by which something is achieved or the cause/reason for a result. It translates as 'by...
3. ～ことによる / ことによって ことによる A phrase used to formally present an event or action as the cause of something. Translates as 'due to the fact that' or 'caused by.'
4. ～の関係で のかんけいで A phrase indicating that something takes place or does not take place because of a certain circumstance or connection. Translates as 'due...
5. したがって したがって A conjunction used to indicate that a result or situation follows necessarily from a preceding statement. Translates as 'therefore,' 'con...
6. ～結果 けっか A noun meaning 'result' used as a conjunction to express 'as a result of' a preceding action or investigation. It connects an effort or p...
7. ～からと言って からといって A conjunction that introduces a reason and implies that the expected conclusion based on that reason does not necessarily follow. Transla...
8. だからと言って だからといって A coordinate conjunction indicating that even if one accepts a premise expressed in the preceding statement, the conclusion that follows ...
9. ～かと言うと かというと A conjunction used to indicate that a popular belief or obvious assumption is not entirely true. Translates as 'whether that's the case' ...
10. そこで (reason) そこで A conjunction that connects a situation presented as a reason to an action taken in response. Translates as 'therefore,' 'so,' or 'that b...
11. そこで (temporal) そこで A conjunction that connects an event to an action taken at the time of that event. Translates as 'at that point,' 'just then,' or 'thereu...