I was writing a text and, not knowing how to say therefore I searched it on jishoo. 30ish words were found and thus I don’t know which one to use, I tried to search on internet if certain words were used in a certain context but I found nothing, so there I am.
For exemple these were a few of the words that I found :
従って/因って/だから/それで etc..
So, can someone explain the difference between those?
5 comments
The most “basic” words are だから and それで. Maggie Sensei has a [good post comparing them.](https://maggiesensei.com/2011/11/18/request-lesson-%e3%81%9d%e3%82%8c%e3%81%a7-%e3%81%a0%e3%81%8b%e3%82%89sorede-dakara)
従って comes from 従う, one meaning of which is “to follow a rule” or “to align / go along with something”. So 従って is kinda like “in that vein” or “accordingly”. This one’s kinda formal and advanced.
I had legit never seen 因って and a search of the Internet suggests it’s for formal / serious writing.
As a learner, one clue as to which words I “want” is by looking at the JLPT level on Jisho. だから and それで are n4, which means they’re lower level and more “basic”. 従って is n3, which suggests it’s more intermediate, and anything in n1 like 因って is probably pretty rare. It’s an imperfect metric, but here it works well!
You could also try searching for usage and results on eow.alc.co.jp. I think it’s telling that a huge site like that had no results for 因って (at least using the kanji).
I’m not sure about the first two, but there is info on the net. But my advice is that それで is probably the best to use (it works like “therefore” in the sense that you put it after a comma or a full stop). Others variants work more like adjectives/adverbs:
https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-grammar/%E3%81%AB%E3%81%97%E3%81%9F%E3%81%8C%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6-ni-shitagatte-meaning/
https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-grammar/%E6%95%85%E3%81%AB-%E3%82%86%E3%81%88%E3%81%AB-yue-ni-meaning/
Btw, I just googled stuff like “shitagatte japanese grammar” to find these, so you can use this pattern to look up others.
したがって/従って is the closest in terms of formality and usage to ‘therefore’.
X. 従ってY → X. Therefore Y
Note that 従って is usually found at the beginning of a sentence. In a standard 小論文 (short essay) structure, it’s a fairly common opener to the last paragraph i.e. the ‘conclusion’ (結論) paragraph.
それで, ですから, and だから are the ones I know of. それで means something more like “with that” or “and with that said.” So, you could say something like:
それで、パーティーに行かない。= “With that said, I won’t go to the party.”
ですから and だから mean the same thing, just different levels of politeness. I don’t know if you’ve learned how to give reasons with から, but if not I’ll give you a very brief rundown.
から means “because” or “so,” and is used as you’d imagine. However, Japanese has one strict rule, it’s structured “reason から consequence.” What does that mean? Well, I’ll show you. For the following examples, imagine you were invited to a party, but you can’t go:
Incredibly formal:
明日、仕事がありますから、パーティーに行きません。= “Tomorrow, I have work, so I can’t go to the party.” or “Because I have work tomorrow, I can’t go to the party.”
Formal:
明日、仕事があるから、パーティーに行きません。= “Tomorrow, I have work, so I can’t go to the party.” or “Because I have work tomorrow, I can’t go to the party.”
Informal:
明日、仕事があるから、パーティーに行かない。= “Tomorrow, I have work, so I can’t go to the party.” or “Because I have work tomorrow, I can’t go to the party.”
Super informal:
明日仕事があるから。= “I have work tomorrow… (implying you can’t go)”
So, that’s how から works. You’ll notice how they all mean the same thing, just said differently. As you know, Japanese really likes to have certain levels of politeness, and that’s what I’ve demonstrated above. So, how does that tie into ですから and だから? Well, let’s look at this example (it’ll be formal):
ラーメンが一番好きだから、毎日食べます。= “Ramen is my favorite, so I eat it everyday.”
As you can see, we’re giving a reason with から again. The reason is that “ramen is my favorite,” and thus the consequence is that “I eat it everyday.” Just like in English, you can give a consequence with the word “therefore.” Imagine someone asks you “why you eat ramen so much.” You could respond with:
Formal;
ラーメンが一番好きです。ですから毎日食べます。= “Ramen is my favorite. Therefore, I eat it everyday.”
Informal:
ラーメンが一番好きだ。だから、毎日食べる。= “Ramen is my favorite. So, I eat it everyday.”
ですから and だから are used after you finish a sentence, but haven’t completed the thought. It’s the same use of から, just said differently for the simple fact that から can’t be used by itself. It needs to be attached to something, and that something is です or だ.
Hopefully this helped. If something needs more explanation, let me know. Also, if there’s any mistakes, please correct me.
だから – there is also its “twin” なので