LEARN + JAPANESE / Note 154 JLPT N5
Because (から)
から attaches after the plain form (or the polite form, in casual speech to soften a refusal) and states a reason directly, “because.” It’s the most basic and direct way to give a reason in Japanese.
Because it's difficult, I study Japanese every day.
Because I like Japanese, I study it every day.
In Real Life
から states a reason as a plain fact, more direct than ので, which softens the same idea into something more like a shared, polite explanation. から works fine in casual speech and in giving a blunt, matter-of-fact reason.
No, I won't eat it. Because I don't like it.
In Real Life
から can also stand alone at the very end of a sentence, added on after the fact as an afterthought explanation, “because,” almost like English tacking “because I said so” onto the end of a sentence.
It's because I like Japanese cars.
In Real Life
からです directly answers a どうして (why) question, naming the reason as the entire predicate of the sentence, a clean, complete way to answer “why” on its own.
Vocabulary
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| sleepy | |
| to come home late | |
| to finish, end | |
| happy, glad | |
| boring | |
| vegetarian | |
| to oversleep | |
| refrigerator | |
| environment | |
| kind, gentle | |
| problem, issue | |
| major (field of study) | |
| why | |
| reason | |
| directly | |
| clearly | |
| to explain | |
| to decline, refuse | |
| cause | |
| result |