Cause and effect with "yinwei" and "suoyi"
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Level
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Similar to
- Expressing "as a result" with "jieguo" (B1)
- Expressing "then…" with "name" (B1)
- Expressing "since" with "jiran" (B2)
- Expressing "therefore" with "yinci" (B2)
- Stating the effect before the cause (B2)
- Express an action and its effect by using "tongguo… shi" (C1)
- Using "because" with "er" to indicate effect (C1)
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Used for
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Keywords
You will often come across “因为 (yīnwèi)... 所以 (suǒyǐ)..." in written Chinese as well as spoken Chinese. Better get used to it!
Structure
"因为 ... 所以 ..." are used to indicate cause and effect. They are often thought of as being: "Since ___ happened, so ___ happened."
因为 + Cause + 所以 + Effect
This expresses that because of cause, therefore there is a result. It is quite common for 因为 to be shortened to just 为.
Examples
- 因为 老板 不 在 这里，所以 我 给 他 打 电话。Since the boss isn't here, I called him.
- 因为 去 北京 学习 中文 了，所以 你 现在 说 中文 很 流利。You went to Beijing to study Chinese, so now you speak Chinese fluently.
- 因为 天气 太 热，所以 我 要 喝 冰 可乐。The weather is really hot, so I'm going to drink some iced Coke.
See also
- Explaining results with "suoyi"
- Stating the effect before the cause (advanced article)
Sources and further reading
Books
- Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide (pp. 272-4) →buy
- Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (pp. 79) →buy
- Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (p. 108) →buy
Websites
- Yale Chinese Usage Dictionary: How to use 因为 and 由于
