Cause and effect with "yinwei" and "suoyi"

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 我 饿了，所以 我 要 吃饭。
• 因为 你 迟到 了，所以 要 说 “对不起”。
• 因为 想 去 中国，所以 要 学 中文。
• 因为 我 会 中文，所以 我 要 去 中国。
• 因为 没有 钱，所以 没有 女朋友。
• 因为 很 累，所以 想 休息。
• 因为 你 不 是 我，所以 你 不 明白。
• 因为 他 不 在 这里，所以 我 给 他 打电话。Since he isn't here, I called him.
• 因为 你 没 来，所以 他 很 不 高兴。
• 因为 太 热，所以 我 要 喝 冰 可乐。It's too 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