what does が do in this sentence?

[rilynch37]

I am adding sentences to my Anki deck, and one I came across was:

昨日シカゴへ行ったんですが、途中込んでいて、家を三時に出たんですが、着いたのは七時ごろでした。

This sentence means, according to the book:

I went to Chicago yesterday. Traffic was so heavy on the way that, although I left home at three, I didn't get there until around seven.

I am wondering what the ～んですが is "doing" here? I know that ～んです can indicate giving an explanation, but I'm not sure if that's what's going on here. I am also aware that ～んですが is a shortening of ～のですが which means seeking clarification, which definitely doesn't seem to be the case. Furthermore, I know that が can act as the conjunction word "but." Finally, one last thing is I know that some verbs have て form ～んで, such as 飲んで.

Still, I am just all around confused about it's meaning here. Could someone explain this grammar construction and maybe give a couple more examples? Thank you so much!

[thegooseking]

mathwiz-さん、

It doesn't really "mean" anything so much, in that it's more for tone than semantics.

Literally it does means 'but', but it's not necessarily indicating that there is any 'but' to speak of; it's just to make the statement less direct, which is a big thing for politeness in Japanese. The way I see it is that it has a slight sense of "but that's not the important thing," indicating that either what you're going to say next is more important (as in this case), or, out of politeness, that how the other person responds is more important.

Though I'd be interested to hear what other people think.

小狼

[mmmason8967]

That's a very clear explanation and I don't think there's anything to add to it. The translation in mathwiz-さん's book seems a little bit too free; I'd prefer to keep closer to the Japanese, like this:-

昨日シカゴへ行ったんですが、途中込んでいて、家を三時に出たんですが、着いたのは七時ごろでした。

I went to Chicago yesterday, and the road in was really packed: I left home at three and I didn't get there until around seven.

マイケル

[rilynch37]

とても助かりました。ありがとうございます！

[community.japanese]

mathwiz20115519-san, 子狼さん、マイケルさん、
thank you for great helps, 子狼さん＆マイケルさん！

mathwiz20115519-san, we often use ～ですが or ～だけど as "introduction to the main story".

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com