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Gogaku

All N3 grammar

N3

〜わけだ

No wonder; which means (an inevitable conclusion)machine translation

FormationPlain form + わけだ (な-adjective + な, noun + という)

〜わけだ expresses an inevitable conclusion drawn from a known fact. When you hear the reason and it suddenly clicks, you use わけだ with a "no wonder!" nuance: 彼は十年日本に住んでいた。だから日本語が上手なわけだ (he lived in Japan for ten years — no wonder his Japanese is good). わけだ is also used to restate the same fact in a different way, equivalent to "that is, in other words."

Connection: plain form + わけだ; な-adjectives add な (上手なわけだ), and nouns usually connect with という (学生というわけだ). In a sentence, わけだ often appears with reasoning connectors like だから, つまり, それで.

Distinguish it from はずだ, which you learned at N4: はずだ is an inference made when you do NOT yet know the result ("by rights it should be so"), while わけだ accepts a result that is ALREADY clear and explains it ("so that's why"). That's why わけだ always needs a basis that has been stated or that both parties can see.

Examples

Related patterns

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