“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin
In the previous chapter you looked at “from から.” In this chapter you’ll be looking at “because から.” Despite the different words (“from” versus “because”) they are actually very similar. First let’s look at some “because から” example sentences in English, then we’ll talk about how they relate to “from から.”
Because I will go…
Because I’m a student…
Because it’s expensive…
The word because is almost like saying “from this action, there is a reaction,” right? I bet you can see how “from” and “because” share a sort of root feeling. You do something because of a reaction that came from an action. You just have to bend your mind a little bit to understand.
Now one thing you’ll probably notice about the sentences above is that they consist of a verb, noun, and adjective sentence. None of that “clear-cut から” you learned about in the previous chapter. Luckily there are ways to differentiate between “because から” and “from から.”
Verbs から
v.dict + から
食べるから
Because (I) eat…
Nouns から
noun + だ + から
学生だから
Because (I’m a) student…
Adjectives から
i-adj + から
高いから
Because (it’s) expensive / tall…
na-adj + だ + から
べんりだから
Because (it’s) convenient…
All of these can be past tense, negative tense, and past negative tense as well! Just make sure to do dictionary form / casual form with all of them.
So how do you differentiate between the “because から” and the “from から”? There’s a couple of good ways.
For verbs, you know that て-form sort of “continues” the sentence, right? So, when you see て-form + から, you know that the sentence flowing and continuing. The phrase following てから is coming from the sentence before it. Dictionary form on the other hand feels more like a stop in the sentence. So, this way you know that part two of the sentence happened because of part one. It’s two different phrases combined by the から.
Nouns also have the same sort of feeling as verbs. When you have to add the だ in there it feels like the sentence is getting “completed.” It feels like two separate sentences that are connected, whereas noun+から feels like one big happy sentence family. Just like verbs, the one that doesn’t flow as much is the “because から” sentence, and the one that does flow is the from から one.
Adjectives, luckily, are quite simple. They’re just used in the “because から” grammar so you don’t have anything to differentiate.
Because You Study Japanese…
So how are these sentences used? Right now you only know how to say “because of ____” but you don’t have the whole picture. Let’s look at some examples to help you to wrap your mind around these grammar points.
日本に行くから…
Because (I) will go to Japan…
a 日本に行くから日本
Because (I) will go to Japan I am studying Japanese.
学生だから…
Because I’m a student…
a 学生だから仕事がない。
Because I’m a student I don’t have a job.
おいしいから…
Because it is tasty…
a おいしいからあのレストランで食べた。
Because it’s tasty I ate at that restaurant (over there).
As you’ve probably figured out, part 1 of the sentence is the “because _____” portion.
A から B
Because of A, B.
Try to identify this pattern in all of the example sentences above, one by one. Always remember that “A” is the reason, and “B” is the outcome. In English it’s often the opposite. We say things like “I don’t have a job because I’m a student.” Exact opposite, which makes this confusing for some people.
If you focus on the pattern and the concept instead of sentences, though, you should be able to figure things out moving forward without getting too confused. At the very least you won’t be confused for very long.
Let’s get some of those practice reps in, though. This way you’ll hopefully be able to solidify this knowledge into something memorable and then use it moving forward.