Lesson 29
Base 3 + kara
Kara is often used as the equivalent to our "because" or "since." It comes at the end of the phrase it modifies, the reason or cause of the action which follows:
- Ame ga furu kara kasa o motte ikimashou. (Since it is going to rain, let's take umbrellas.)
- Beth wa itsumo okureru kara denwa suru. (Beth is always late, so I'll call her.)
In spoken Japanese, you'll often hear the action stated first, with its reason, signified by kara at the end, given after. In this case, grammatically speaking, they each become separate sentences. Let's do this to the above examples:
- Kasa o motte ikimashou. Ame ga furu kara. (Let's take umbrellas since it's going to rain.)
- Watashi wa Beth ni denwa suru. Itsumo okureru kara. (I'll call Beth because she's always late.
Kara is very handy and can be used with many other verb forms and endings. Let's look at a few examples:
- Gyuunyuu ga nai kara mise ni ikimasu. (We don't have any milk, so I'm going to the store.)
- Jisho o kaitai kara honya ni ikimasu. (I'm going to the bookstore because I want to buy a dictionary.)
- Suzuki-san no ie ni ikitakunai! Kare wa itsumo iya na mono o tabesaseru kara. (I don't want to go to Mr. Suzuki's place because he always makes me eat nasty stuff.)
- Ongaku o kikimasu. Terebi o mitakunai kara. (I'm going to listen to music because I don't want to watch TV.)
- Kenji wa kanada no gakkou ni ikimashita kara eigo ga jouzu desu. (Kenji's English is good because he went to a Canadian school.)
You may remember a different kara from Lesson 28 which means "from someone/somewhere." Just like English, Japanese has many words that are written and pronounced the same as others while having a different meaning, helping to make the study of languages the wonderfully complicated pain that it is! But, it's no big problem. Again, just like English, context and experience with sentence structure will eventually make it all very easy. Kara after names and places will usually mean "from"; kara after verbs and adjectives, as in this lesson, means "because."
Word Check
furu: to fall (rain, snow, etc.)
motte iku: to take (something with you)
itsumo: always
okureru: to be late
denwa suru: to call someone on the telephone
gyuunyuu: milk
mise: store
jisho: dictionary
honya: bookstore
ie: house, home
iya na: bad, nasty, disgusting
mono: thing; stuff
ongaku: music
kiku: to listen
kanada: Canada
gakkou: school
eigo: the English language
jouzu: be good at (something); skilled
(Verbs are shown in their plain form.)
|
