/u/YamYukky ‘s advice [yesterday](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/16ddqjm/advice_for_japanese_language_learners/) has got me thinking about all the basic conjunctions that I have misused or ignored, so I decided to make a post sharing some of these to save others the trouble.
(I can be pretty Dunning-Kruger sometimes so I welcome any corrections or additions!)
I think one of the key difficulties is that trying to break down these conjunctions into their constituent parts can often lead to misunderstandings. My advice is to learn every conjunction as just its own thing, with lots of example sentences to check your understanding.
This post is aimed at the N4-N2 crowd so apologies for lack of furigana.
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###それ and そこ
それ means ‘that’, right? そこ means ‘there’, right? How hard can it be? Turns out that a lot of the common conjunctions using them do not behave as you would expect if you tried to puzzle them out simply as “that + particle”. I’ve adapted a couple of the examples [from here](https://maggiesensei.com/2019/05/09/conjunctions-and-expressions-with-%E3%81%9D%E3%82%8C-sore/) where you can read more in depth. She also includes some other それconjunctions I won’t be covering because they are more intuitive.
***それで – (So) then / So (that’s why)***
The order of events “and then” meaning of this conjunction is fairly intuitive:
>朝寝坊した、それで仕事に遅れたんだ。>!I overslept and then was late for work.!<
But I feel a lot of people miss the reasoning “due to that” aspect. It’s not just a simple order of time “then”, it also shows reasoning very similar to だから, mainly for natural / inevitable consequences:
>A: マギーは朝からなにも食べていなんだって。>!I heard Maggie hasn’t eaten anything since this morning!<
>B: それで機嫌が悪いんだね。>!(So) that’s why she is in a bad mood.!<
What comes after それで is not used for the future or your volition. For that, adding は to make it それでは is natural for concluding a call to some sort of action (especially conclusive things like saying goodbye or summing things up). それでは is similar to それなら.
Again, it may be more useful to think of それでは as its own thing that means something similar to “in that case” rather than trying to analyze it as a three piece grammar ensemble every time you encounter it.
>A: ああ、バスはもう走ってない。>!Aah! The buses aren’t running any more.!<
>B: それじゃ、タクシーに乗ろう。 >!In that case let’s take a taxi.!<
In this case though, それでは is so common I don’t think most beginners misuse this one, its cousin それで is more troublesome.
***そこで***
Similar to それで , but used in response to a *situation*, generally measures taken that lead to an *improvement*. Again, this conjunction is not something you could reason out just from knowing “そこ” and “で” as words by themselves or the common そこで in reference to a place where an action takes place.
>会社に解雇された。そこで、新しい仕事をさがしている。
–
>風邪をひいた。そこで、病院に行った。
These are my understandings based on [this paper](https://www.guic.gunma-u.ac.jp/wp/wp-content/themes/guic/files/publications/no6/hagiwara.pdf), especially this table:
「だから」：Ｓ１（原因／理由／根拠／理屈／状態）。だから、Ｓ２（話し手の判断・主張）。
「それで」：Ｓ１（事の真相／原因）。それで、Ｓ２（真相発見／行為への移行の原因・理由）。
「そこで」：Ｓ１（状況／場面）。そこで、Ｓ２（状況から行為への移行／改善・解決の行為）
So apologies if I’ve messed anything up.
***それから – next, after that***
Beginner intuition could lead you to think of this as “from that”, which sounds an awful lot like reasoning (like the above phrases), but actually the meaning of それから is often much closer to その次に .
>まず、まじめに勉強して、それから試験を受けなさい。>!You must study seriously first, and after that, take the exam.!<
It can provide a much stronger emphasis on the order of events than そして .
***あと- Also (conversational)***
Let’s take a detour to a similar expression. When your brain sees あと you probably immediately assume it’s related to “after” or some sort of order of time (because that is its main use), but in conversation it can also be used to just add additional facts with no time order related meaning.
>スイスとオーストリア。あとドイツも行くよ。>!Switzerland and Austria. And I am also going to Germany.!<
Note that this does not necessarily mean that the speaker will go to Germany *after* Switzerland and Austria. (Though due to the way memory works that is likely)
Similarly, それから can also be used conversationally like this with little regard to its time order related meaning:
>買い物に行くの？じゃあ、牛乳とキャベツとそれから玉ねぎも買ってきて。>!Are you going shopping? Then, buy some milk, cabbage and also some onions.!<
A lot of learners use そして for adding afterthoughts in conversations like this, but I believe あと・それから are a bit more natural:
>彼は日本語と英語が話せます。あ、それからスペイン語も。
[(more examples here under usage 6)](https://maggiesensei.com/2018/01/22/how-to-use-%E5%BE%8C-%E3%81%82%E3%81%A8-ato/)
***それに – on top of that***
This one does not have any time order nuances to worry about. It is used like the ‘in addition’ meaning of ‘also’. It can pair nicely with the だし grammar point:
>どうしてさくら大学を選んだんですか。>!Why did you choose Sakura University?!<
>さくら大学は、父が出た大学だし、いい先生も多いし、それに家から近いですから。>!Well my father went to Sakura University, and there are a lot of good teachers… also because it’s close to my house.!<
(phrasing note: notice how 近い takes から whereas in English we basically never say “Close from home”.)
***それが（ね）- actually***
This one is confusing because it has a very unintuitive usage of が. Most learners expect contrast to be signaled by は so thinking of it simply as ‘ that + が ‘ can, as in the other examples, lead to misunderstandings.
>彼女、元気？>!How’s your girlfriend?!<
>それが別れたんだ。>!Actually we broke up.!<
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###ところ conjuctions
I just wanted to briefly comment that ところ・どころ expressions are not your friend and do not lead themselves to easy analysis based on your knowledge of ところ and whatever particles follow it. You really should just learn each of them as their own stand alone thing. The non-literal meanings of （た）ところで、ところが , ところを etc are just best learned as individual words or grammar points rather than trying to logic out the constituent parts every time you encounter them.
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###Finally, by the way
やっと、とうとう、ようやく、いよいよ、ついに ….There are an annoying amount of ways to say “finally” in Japanese with different nuances so don’t fall into the trap of trying to use one for all situations. [Imabi](https://imabi.org/result/) is your friend here.
There are also a lot of “by the way” and “anyway” family of phrases which English speakers often mix up in Japanese because we use those phrases in a variety of situations. ちなみに、ところで、そういえば、ていうか、さて …. とにかく・どうせ . [These ones aren’t as difficult and are much more forgiving than the “finally” phrases.](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/dgin4j/anyhowanyway_%E3%81%A9%E3%81%86%E3%81%9B%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AB%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8F%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8F%E4%BD%95%E3%81%97%E3%82%8D%E3%81%84%E3%81%9A%E3%82%8C_can_i_get_a_quick/f3dhvrd/) (P.S. I have no idea why the OP is gone or how to restore it)
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###だって
Bonus: だって cannot take も, it already has the “even if” function all by itself [due to historical Japanese reasons.](https://imabi.org/the-particles-%e3%81%a8%e3%81%a6-%e3%81%a8%e3%82%82/) Maybe it’s just me but I feel like I analyzed だって incorrectly for far too long.
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Hope some of that was helpful. What conjunctions took a long time to click for you? Do you have any conjunction related advice?
1 comment
Trally good and detailed explanation.