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Gogaku

All N3 grammar

N3

そこで

So, and so ([someone] went and did…)machine translation

FormationAt the start of the following sentence: Sentence A。そこで、sentence B。

そこで connects a SITUATION with the ACTION someone deliberately took to deal with it: 部屋が暑かった。そこで、窓を開けた (the room was hot. So I opened the window). The implicit formula: "faced with situation A, I/they took the occasion to do B."

Two constraints: the second clause must be a deliberate ACTION (not a state or emotion), and it is usually something that already happened or a decision already settled. 暑かった。そこで、疲れた is wrong because "got tired" is not a deliberate action — in that case use それで.

Comparing within the family of causal conjunctions: それで states a natural result without stressing intent; だから is casual spoken "so"; したがって is formal and leans toward logical argument. そこで sits in between: polite enough for narrative writing, and always evoking the image of "seizing on that situation to go do something."

Examples

Related patterns

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