Request Lesson : それで & だから(=sorede & dakara)
November 18, 2011 in Grammar
「ねえ、私、１００グラムもやせたんだよ♪」
= Nee watashi hyaku guramu mo yasetandayo♪
= Hey, I lost “HUNDRED” grams!
「だからどうしたの？」
= Dakara doushita no?
= So what?
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「昨日、道で一万円拾ったの。」
= Kinou michi de ichimanen hirotta no.
= I picked up 10,000 yen on the street yesterday.
「それでどうしたの？」
= Sorede doushita no?
= And what did you do? / And what happened?
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Hi, everyone! How have you been?
This lesson is for my Twitter follower, Sanjay.
He asked me the difference between それで (= sore de) and だから (= dakara)
They are conjunctions and the general meanings are,
だから(= dakara) : because of that, that’s why, therefore
それで(= sorede) : then, so, as a result, because of that, that’s why
Hum…the differences seem to be vague, huh?
Let’s see if I can point out some clear differences…
Here we go! 
**********************************************
As we can tell by the meanings, sometimes they are interchangeable and sometimes they are not.
When can we use either だから(= dakara) or それで(= sorede)?
★When we talk about reasons and the consequences.
possible reasons, causes
→ + それで(= sorede) or だから(=dakara)
consequences of the previous sentence
Ex. マギーはピンク色が好きです。だから／それでこのセーターをプレゼントに選びました。
= Maggie wa pinku iro ga suki desu. Dakara / Sorede kono seetaa wo purezento ni erabimashita.
= Maggie likes pink color. That’s why/ So I chose this sweater for her present.
Ex. 学校に動物を連れてきてはいけません。だから／それでマギーは教室には入れなかったのです。
= Gakkou ni doubutsu wo tsurete kite wa ikemasen. Dakara/ Sorede Maggie wa kyoushitsu niwa hairenakatta no desu.
= You can’t bring any animals to the school. That’s why/ So Maggie couldn’t go in the classroom.
Ex. 彼のことばかり考えて何も手につきません。だから／それで試験の結果は最悪でした。
= Kare no koto bakari kangaete nani mo te ni tsukimasen. Dakara / Sorede shiken no kekka wa saiaku deshita.
= I can’t get him out of my mind, and I can’t do anything else. That’s why/ So the result of the exam was terrible.
Note : They are interchangeable in the above sentences. If there is a difference I would say,
While だから (= dakara) is often meant “That’s why”, それで (= sorede) is more like “so” in these cases.
Even if they are both translated as ”that’s why”, だから (= dakara) is slightly stronger than それで (=sorede) and it stresses “the reason for something” more.
★In a dialogue between two people :
Speaker A talks about something that could be a reason for something.
Speaker B responds, saying
それで(= sorede)/ だから(=dakara) + consequences of what the speaker A just said.
In this case, それで (= sorede) and だから (= dakara) both mean “That explains “, “That’s why.”
Ex.「マギー、ちょっと太ったんだって。」
= Maggie chotto futottan datte.
= You know Maggie is putting on some weight.
「ああ、だから/ それで最近、あんまり食べないんだ。」
= Aa, dakara/ Sorede saikin anmari tabenainda.
= Oh, that’s why she doesn’t eat much lately.
Ex.「マギー風邪引いたんだって。」
= Maggie kaze hiitandatte.
= I heard Maggie has a cold.
「だから/ それで休みなんだ。」
= Dakara/ Sorede yasumi nanda.
= That’s why she is absent.
Ex. 「 昨日は徹夜だったの。」(の ending : female speech)
= Kinou wa testsuya datta no.
= I stayed up all night long last night.
「だから/それで目が赤いんだね。」
= Dakara / Sorede me ga akain dane.
= That’s why you have red eyes.
Ex. 「マギー彼と別れたらしいよ。」
= Maggie, kare to wakareta rashii yo.
= I heard Maggie broke up with him.
「だから/それで元気(が）ないんだね。」
= Dakara/ Sorede genki (ga)nain dane.
= That’s why she looks depressed.
Ex. 「ここの店のラーメン、めちゃめちゃ美味しいよ。」
= Kokono mise no raamen, mechamecha oishiiyo.
= The ramen in this ramen shop is really good!
「だから／それでいつも人が一杯なんだ。」
= Dakara/ Sorede itsumo hito ga ippai nanda.
= That’s why it’s always crowded.
Sometimes we just say,
•だからね。= Dakara ne.
•だからか… = Dakara ka. （male talk)
•それで… = Sore de…
•それでか… = Sorede ka… (male talk)
Ex. 「マギー、今日デートだって。」
= Maggie kyou deito datte.
= I heard Maggie has a date today.
(Upon seeing Maggie is dressed up.)
「ああ、だからね。」
= Aa dakarane.
= Ah, that’s why.
Ex. A : 「なんで今日、こんなに綺麗に片付いてるの？」
= Nande kyou konnani kirei ni katazuiteruno?
= How come it’s so clean today?
B: 「お客さんがくるんだって。」
= Okyakusan ga kurun datte.
= I heard we have a guest.
A :「それでか。」
= Sorede ka..
or
「それでね。」
= Sorede ne.
or
「だからか。」
= Dakara ka.
or
「だからね。」
= Dakara ne.
= That’s why. / That explains.
************************
Now let’s look at example where these words are not interchangeable:
Let’s look at the pictures above. Two pictures are showing how to respond/ react to someone’s story using それで (= sorede) and だから(=dakara).
See the difference?
When someone is telling a story, if you respond saying,
「それでどうしたの？」
= Sorede doushita no?
= Then what happened?
or simply
= 「それで？」
= Sorede?
= And then? (Keep talking!)
the speaker can tell by your response that you are interested in the story and want to hear more.
But if you say,
「だからどうしたの？」
= Dakara doushitano?
= So what ? / Who cares!
or simply say
「だから？」
= Dakara?
= So?/ So what?/ Who cares!
the speaker might be offended because you don’t sound like you are interested in what the speaker is talking about.
(Note : This is a basic rule but sometimes, if you say「それで?」 (=sorede?) with flat intonation and less enthusiasm showing no interest, people might take it as “So what?”.
Also if you say 「それがどうしたの？」(= Sore ga doushita no) that also means “So what?”( I don’t care… )
Particles are difficult. Just one particle can totally change the nuance.)
★When we make a suggestion or give an order, we use だから (= dakara) = so
Ex. 電車がもう出ます。だからもうちょっと急ぎましょう。
= Densha ga mou demasu. Dakara mou chotto isogimashou.
= The train is leaving soon. So we should hurry a little more!
!BUBU! You can’t use “それで“ (= sorede)
Ex. この辺は物騒です。だから夜一人で歩かない方がいい。
= Konohen wa bussou desu. Dakara yoru hitori de arukanai hou ga ii.
= This area is dangerous. So you shouldn’t walk alone at night.
!BUBU! You can’t use “それで” (= sorede)
★ Asking a question starting with それで (= sorede) = and then, so
Ex.「それでマギーはどうするの？」
= Sorede Maggie wa dou suru no?
= So what are you (Maggie) going to do then?
Ex,「それであの後、どうなったの？」
= Sorede ano ato, dounatta no?
= So what happened after that?
Ex.「それで、あなたはその人を助けたの？」
= Sore de anata wa sono hito wo tasuketa no?
= And did you help that person after all?
★When you make your point by repeating your quote/ When you want to get the listener’s attentio, we use だから(=dakara)
= I told you so. That’s why I told you
(It may sound a little intrusive or frustrated. )
Ex. 「だから、私は行きたくないって言ってるでしょ！」(female speech)
= Dakara watashi wa ikitaku naitte itterudesho!
= I am telling you that I don’t want to go!
Ex. だから言ったじゃない。／言ったでしょ。（female speech)
= Dakara ittajanai / itta desho.
= That’s why I told you so.
Ex.だから言っただろ(う)。(male speech )
= Dakara itta daro(u).
= That’s why I told you so.
Ex. だからちゃんと両手で(コップを）持たないとこぼすって言ったでしょ！
= Dakara chanto ryoute de (koppu wo) motanai to kobosu tte itta desho!
= I told you the cup would spill if you didn’t hold it with both hands!
!BUBU! You can’t use “それで” (= sorede)
*******************************
!riceball! Extra information:
Actually this is conjunction から(=kara) but,
na-adjective + conjunction から(=kara) becomes 〜だから(=dakara) = because
*元気(=genki) →元気だ (=genkida) →+から(=kara)
→元気だから = genki da kara = because being healthy, energetic
Ex. 母は元気だから心配ない。
= Haha wa genki dakara shinpai nai.
= My mom is healthy so there is nothing I worry about.
*静か(=shizuka)→静かだ(=shizukada)→+から(=kara)
→静かだから = shizuka da kara = because it is quiet, someone is quiet
Ex. ここは静かだから勉強するには理想的だ。
= Koko wa shizuka dakara benkyou suru niwa risoutekida.
= It’s very quiet here so it is ideal to study here.
Ex. あんまり静かだから誰もいないと思った。
= Anmari shizuka dakara dare mo inai to omotta.
= You were so quiet (It was so quiet ) that I thought nobody was here.
noun + だから(= dakara) : emphasizing the noun
犬だから = inu dakara = just because being a dog
Ex. 犬だから日本語は教えられないというのはおかしい。 
= Inudakara nihongo wa oshierarenai to iu nowa okashii.
= It is strange to think I can’t teach Japanese just because I am a dog.
今だから= ima dakara = only now, “Now”
Ex.今だから出来ることがいっぱいあるはずだ。
= Ima dakara dekiru koto ga ippai aru hazu da.
= There must be so many things that we can do NOW.
女だから= onna dakara = because you are a woman, I am a woman
Ex. 女だからって馬鹿にしないでよ！
= Onnadakaratte baka ni shinai de yo!
= Just because I am a woman, don’t belittle (underestimate) me!
マギー先生より = Maggie Sensei yori = From Maggie Sensei
一万円を拾ってどうしたかって？もちろん、警察に届けました。
= Ichiman en wo hirotte doushitakatte? Mochiron keisatsu ni todokemashita.
= What did I do with the 10,000 yen I picked up? Of course, I took it to the police station.
ありがとうマギー先生。 小さいミスがありますけど。
= I can’t get out of him out of my mind, and I can’t do anything else.
There is an extra “out of”!
@Bruce
Thank you, Bruce♡ 直しました！！
Makes me think of when you’re on the train in Japan, they say something like あぶないですから、足元を注意してください。or something like that. I think I remember seeing a little Hello Kitty sticker saying something similar in regards to sticking your fingers in the door.
That’s some good info. I’ve been looking for a good phrase for “Oh that’s what that means,” or something. I’ve always been saying ああ、なるほど which maybe sounds like I’m being lectured or something, maybe?
Anyway, a brilliant lesson as always!
@applezoid
いつもサイトに来てくれてありがとう！
Ah, yes,
あぶないです”から”、足下に注意してください。
this “から” also has a function to give a reason.
ああ、なるほど！ is a very common phrase and as you said, we use it when we learned something.
Hope you can master various usages of “だから” and ”それで”!
いつも通り良いレッソン、ありがとうね。
@WolfHavenXIII
こちらこそ、いつも来てくれてありがとう！！
Konnichiwa Maggie sensei,
Edo to moshimasu :p
My Japanese level is still very low and I am really that I found your webpage !!!!!
It is really a great great great and a big big work you are doing… This website, Facebook, Twitter, different categories, many example, audios, Pictures, different colors, cute icons…. wooooowww amazing !!!!
I would liek to know if it is possible to change a little bit the way how you are wrtting the sentences to make more easy to learn the Japanese sentances and words…
Here an example of what I mean:
I took one of your sentence:
母は元気だから心配ない。
= Haha wa genki dakara shinpai nai.
= My mom is healthy so there is nothing I worry about.
It is already a big work by writting in Japanese, then hiragana and finally english, this is good for each level, but I think there are few more things which are missing to make even more effective the learning…
For this sentence:
母は元気だから心配ない。
I think putting spaces for each word will make easy to read and learn each words and later, it will be easy to recognize when the word start and finish…
For somebody who does not read well japanese, it is difficult to know if は元気 is a full word or not… Furthermore, 母 is a kanji which means HAHA (2 syllables), If I use your romanji sentence, it is difficult to make the relation for each Kanji/Hiragan to romanji…
Therefore, putting a space between each words will make easy to differentiate all words…
For these sentences:
= Haha wa genki dakara shinpai nai.
= My mom is healthy so there is nothing I worry about.
I think it can be really helful to add one more line with the translation of each word in English, like that:
= Haha wa genki dakara shinpai nai.
= Mum about good so nothing to worry
= My mom is healthy so there is nothing I worry about.
Like this is easy to know the meaning of each word and also to learn a structure of japanese sentences
In your english sentence, it is perfectly English but in the japanese sentence, there is no “I” which is “watashi”, there is no “my” which is “no”, etc…
If I should translate your English sentence in Japanese, I will say like this:
= My mom is healthy so there is nothing I worry about.
= Watashi no Haha wa genki desu. Dakara shinpai nai
Which is word by word translation but this is not a normal way to write…
Your sentence is more usual:
= Haha wa genki dakara shinpai nai.
= Mum about good so nothing to worry
Looks like normal Japanese sentences are very short and straight forward comparing to European sentence structure…
This is why, I think it is really important and really helpful to add this word translation…
I do hope I am not offending you, I just want to learn Japanese and I could see many, many websites which try to teach Japanese but you are the only one who is close to the perfection (to my eyes) and adding that will even help more the learning of Japanese language…
Yoroshiku oneigashimasu
Edo
@Edo
Wow!!! Thank you for the long comment!
I really appreciate your support and feedback for this site.
I just got another request to add one more line just in Hiragana.
To be honest, it is going to be a lot of work for me and I am not sure if I can do that.
Also many people think my lessons are too long and they will be even longer.
But I can see how important for you to learn example sentences word by word so…
If there are many other people who want me to explain word by word as you suggested, I will give it a try in some lessons (not all of them but just the one for the beginners) as a trial.
So anybody who want more lines, feel free to leave a comment here.
Thank you again for your comment! I am very happy that you visit here to learn Japanese!
Sensei,
Many thanks for your time to reply to my message…
Here too I can see how Japanese people are very humble… other people will either not read and delete such message or simply reply… you are not happy of the way I am doing the things, do it yourself… :p
Yes I can understand the people who wants Hiragana only sentences… when I am looking a specific words in my Japanese Jisho, for the Kanji, it is difficult because, we need to know the stroke order to find the good word… when we use electronic jisho, we have either to enter Romanji syllables or write in hiragana to get the kanji and then get the definition…
This is why from my experience, having a space between the words, may help when we are looking into dictionaries, where the word start and finish.
I will say that a sentence including kanji with spaces and romanji sentences should be enough. If there is a kanji we do not understand, we can use the romanji way to enter it into the dictionary to get the definition of the kanji.
Something like: 母, you gave us the romanji HAHA, therefore we can get the Kanji in the dictionary (electronic dictionary of course :p)
But getting only Kanji is difficult as we do not know yet all basic kanjis…
Some people are right some comments in your pages only in good Japanese, I cannot understand
and I am sure it can very very interesting…
Yes you are prefectly right saying that I learn the sentence word by word.
As mentioned in my previous message and as you know the Japanese sentence structure is very different of European sentence structure.
Here your example:
Ichiman en wo hirotte doushitakatte?
What did I do with the 10,000 yen I picked up?
This is a literally translation of Japanese to English. If I want to create my own sentence:
What did I do with the mobile phone I picket up ?
I will translate first the Japanese sentence word by word to know each words, for the ones I do not know, I will look into the dictionary…
I get:
Ichiman = ten thousand
en = yen
wo = about (object marker)
hirotte = pick up
Doushitakatte = What do you do
then in English, it will be:
Ten thousand yen about pick up what do you do
I do not see I, with, etc… Once again I can see how Japanese sentences are straight forward…
Thus to make my Sentence I will do something like this:
Mobile phone about pick up what do you do
Denwa wo hirotte Doushitakatte ?
Is is correct sentence ??
But unfortunately, yes you are right, it is giving much more, much more work to you
I do not think that your lesson are too long as you are giving many examples with different conditions, this is really helpful.
Like the “Anata” lesson, my first time I see such lesson, I never saw it in Lesson book and other websites…
I learnt a lot and now I prefer to say the name of the person + san instead of Anata, I find it more respectful, more polite
Domo arigatou gozaimasu sensei !!!!!!
@Edo
Again, thank you so much for your message. I read every single word.
When I first started to make this site, I had no idea which level I should have aimed for. Everybody should have a different level. I assume people who visit this site have been studying basic Japanese with a text book or at school. Also there are a lot of great Japanese teaching sites explaining all the details of the grammar, kanji, letters and everything.
So I wanted our site to be a bit different from others and help people learn “natural” Japanese more than textbook Japanese.
But you are right. Many of the example sentences here must be very confusing for the beginners because they are different from what they have been learning at school. Like skipping personal pronouns or casual contractions, etc.
One thing I can tell you now is, please believe me. All your confusion will be eventually disappeared. If you keep studying, you will be able to separate the sentence without problems and tell which word you have to look up in a dictionary and stuff.
And meanwhile I can always help you here, on Twitter or FB. if you have a question.
Now about your question,
Yes, you can say
Denwa wo hirotte Doushitakatte ?
The problem of translating word by word is a particle
を is not always “about” in English. In English they say”To pick up + object” and there is no translation for を
So it may be different from what you asked me, as I said, if many other people want me to make more beginner friendly lessons, I will give it a try to make a lesson with all the explanation of the words.
Anyway ありがとう again for all your wonderful suggestions!
Sensei,
Thanks again for you comment but yes it will be a big work, therefore no need to do it…
domo sumimasen
@edo
OK, will see what I could do to make everybody happy here. Please keep visiting me here, OK?
授業を読んだのにドラマを見ながら「だから」と「それで」をよく聞き取りました。
ええと、実はこれは言いたいことがあります：
“Ever since i read your lesson…”
日本語でどう言いますか。
@Bruce
Ah, OK,how about
Ever since I read your lesson = このレッスンを読んでから(or 読んで以来ずっと）〜よく聞き取ることが出来ます。And GREAT! I am very happy to hear that!
ありがとうございました。
いい勉強になります。
Your website is a godsend! I’m just starting to learn japanese and couldn’t have found a better site than yours. Just right on time! Thanks.
@Eee
Thank you, Eee!! (→Easy to remember your nick name!) Hope you come back here often! またね！
hi maggie! great lesson as always. i think the way u teach is perfect pls don’t change. what edo said was absurd (sorry) so pls don’t think you have to do something insane like that u do enuf work as it is.
@edo just use firefox rikaichan (i forgot name -something like this…rikachan?) it lets you read kanji just by scrolling over it. all u mentioned is work u can do to learn better.
maggie gives us enough material as it is.
anyways
good luck edo!
@wata
Thank you, wata! I am always open to hear what people want. Rikaichan is a great suggestion! Lots of people are using it. ありがとう！
@Wata and Sensei
Thanks for Rikaichan, I have installed it and yes it is useful for reading kanji as it is automatically extracting the full word :p
Domo arigatou gozaimasu
@edo Wonderful!! Yokattane!! Thank you, @wata again for your information!
maggie sensei~ こんにちは：D
今日もいい勉強になりました、ありがとう！
で、質問があります～
「だから」と比べると、「ですから」はもっと丁寧ですね？丁寧の程度しか違う点がないんですね？
@薫
Hi, 久しぶり！
そうですね、「ですから」は「だから」の丁寧表現ですのでそのまま言い換えることができます。
今日は日曜日です。It’s Sunday today.
That’s why :
だから誰もいないんですね。→
(polite) ですから誰もいないんですね。
Emphasizing what you are trying to say :
だから何回も言ったでしょ！
ですから何回も申し上げたと思います！
There is no difference. The only difference I can think of is, while you can use ですから with i-adjective, you can’t use だから with i-adjective,
Ex. 暑い → 暑いですから （You can’t say 暑いだから. You have to say 暑いから） 怖い→怖いですから （You can’t say 怖いだから You have to say 怖いから）
今日は寒いですから風邪をひかない様に気をつけて下さい。
→X 今日から寒いだから~
→○今日は寒いから~
ちょうちょうちょう～～詳しい！
ちょうちょうちょうありがとう、先生！
ノートにうつしました：D
but there seems to be a tiny miss
「while you can use ですから with na-adjective, you can’t use だから with na-adjective」逆になったみたいですね～
@薫
Haha, I thought you were singing 蝶々 = batterfly チョウチョ song!♪
Oh what I meant was i-adjective. Sorry!
maggie sensei~merry christmas!!!!
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@薫
わ〜〜〜〜〜すご〜〜〜い！！！(ﾉﾟοﾟ)ﾉ クリスマスツリーだ！Thank you 薫！！ありがとう！
(*ﾉ∇ﾟ)ﾉ⌒☆ -=★ -=☆Happy Holidays 2U2!
Thank you for this lesson Maggie-sama!! Exactly what I’ve been looking for ^__^
@Fina
Hi,Fina-chan! Hisashiburi!
Good to hear you found the right lesson!
本当に役に立ちました！ありがとうございます＾＾
@Uian
それを聞いて本当にうれしいです！！