から when it doesn't mean "because"

[Knocks]

I am having a bit of a hard time finding the exact translation for から when it comes at the end of a sentence. Yes, it can sometimes be translated as "because" but often it doesn't. Here's an example from one of the early Beginner lesson where a mother is lecturing her son not to play video games before finishing homework.

母親：　何度言わせるの？！

子供：　わかったよー。　あと10分で終わるからー。

This usage of から is extremely common in colloquial speech. Can anyone think of the closest way to express it in English?

[mieth]

I think that it might be wise to try to avoid an exact translation here. The kara in your example sentence is in fact the kara which shows cause or reason. True, in some cases you can translate it as because and it fits quite nicely but obviously as you can see here if you just replace kara with because it sounds a little strange. So kara doesn't mean because so much as it shows the cause or reason for something.

In your sentence the mother is saying "how many times are you going to make me say it"

the nuance of the child replying is something like "I got it, I'm gonna be done in 10 minutes so get off my back"

by the way I highly recommend this series of books although they are a little pricey. Great investment in your Japanese education and will take you a loooong way.

http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Basic- ... 669&sr=8-1

[QuackingShoe]

Japanese implies even more than English does. Japanese very often don't finish their sentences. Listen to (or be engaged in) a Japanese conversation sometime. You'll rapidly find that they leave so many of their statements open for their partner to mentally fill in, that if you don't already know what they're talking about or have expansive cultural fore-knowledge, you're screwed!

Anyway, that's what's happening here. He's just not finishing. But he is saying 'because,' or as mieth put in his translation, 'so'. These two words have identical meaning in English, they just have different function.

Which I think is what's confusing you. You're locked into 'because' for whatever reason, and English word order. So you're seeing this and thinking, "I got it! Because I''ll just be 10 more minutes!"

Which doesn't make sense, because in English, we'd expect "I got it" to be the result of that cause. "Because I'll just be 10 more minutes, I got it!" That's how we're used to constructing thoughts with 'because'.

But replace with "so" (or, you know, から, since that's the actual word being used here) and it makes sense. "I got it! I'll just be 10 more minute so (stop nagging me)!"

Finishing a sentence with から in this way is ridiculously common since it lets you not say the really rude thing at the end, but still get the idea across. Also common when the result is embarrassing or whatever...

As for how to translate it, you don't. It's easy to leave what you're saying unsaid in Japanese, but it isn't in English, at least not in the same places. "I'll be done in 10 minutes so!" doesn't sound at all like the Japanese sentence. You can't do it word for word. You just find an overall sentence that gives off the same feel.


Final note. から after a verb, adjective, or the copula is always that 'because' から. The other からs mean 'from' or 'after', and are used adjacent to nouns or after て.
(probably they just all mean 'from' and it's a bad case of the logical flaw of correlation=causation embedding itself into a language, like the English word 'since,' but nevermind)

[Knocks]

Thank you both for your insights. I think that intuitively, most English speakers can probably guess the connotation of "so" or "because" because these sentences are usually pretty clear on their face. In fact, you can deliver a perfect English translation in most cases even if you chop off から entirely. That said, I do think it's necessary to explain the exact reason why this or that expression is used, so that a native English speaker can learn how and when to use it. So by "translating" I meant not a translation that can be inserted in an equivalent English sentence, but a translation that can be used in a footer explanation of what is going on with this word and how to construct similar sentences yourself.

QuackingShoe, I like your explanation of an implied clause that is being omitted because it is undesirable to say. However, I don't think it covers all cases of this particular usage of から. I have heard dialogs where two or more speakers exchange sentences, each of which end with から, and I mean consecutive sentences, each ending with から. I was just watching an episode of 絶対彼氏 the other day when I heard something like that. Wish I would have transcribed it, but if I encounter something similar, I'll post it.

[QuackingShoe]

Well, I focused on that because it was undesirable in your example and it shows how it can actually be useful. But they also just drop it because there's no reason to keep saying it when you already know what they're going to say. Same as they drop nouns, particles, and most everything else out of their sentences. I think fully half of Japanese sentences end with けど XD

But still, feel free to hit us with examples.
( dramanote.com has transcriptions of various drama btw )