Components

Grammar detail: わけだ

わけだ  statement of judgement or opinion
259 words
My current mastery of this grammar point:
LOG IN to view grammar mastery data
わけ + だ or わけ + です is used to mean 'the situation is ~' or 'the circumstances are that ~', often as an expression of a judgement made by the speaker or the speaker's opinion.
まいにち
毎日
ギター
から
じょうず
上手
ける
わけです
I'm good at playing guitar, because I play every day.
わけだ often carries the implication that the situation is 'obvious', the 'natural result', or 'just what you'd expect' - something like the English 'Of course ~'. For example:
でもそのことをもう友達に話したわけですよ。
But (the thing is) I'd already spoken about that to my friend.
1ドル115円なら、50ドルで5千7百50円になるわけだ。
There are 115 yen to the dollar, so $50 is 5750 yen.
Sometimes the difference between わけ meaning 'reason' and わけです meaning 'expected result' can be easy to miss. The clues come from what comes before わけ and what follows it.
話したってわけですか。
So you mean you did talk about it?
Note that って, the colloquial form of という, is used to call out and emphasize the fact that we spoke. という (and って) often comes before わけ (but after the plain form clause), to help draw attention to the circumstances or situation in question. In this example, if the って was missing, ie the sentence was 話したわけですか, it would still mean roughly the same, but we would no longer be emphasizing the circumstances of 'having talked' - so this could be translated just as 'Did you talk then?'.
In informal speech, the ending verb です (or だ) is often omitted entirely. For example:
  • やったわけ? So you did it?
  • やったってわけ? So you meant that you did do it?
  • やったわけは? What's the reason you did it?
Please LOG IN for free flashcards

Kanji used in this grammar

ユウ   とも friend   
Please LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
タツ    arrive   
Please LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
ワ   はな to talk   はなし talking   
Please LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
エン    circle, yen   まる round   
セン   1000; thousand   ち 1000   
Please LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
ヒャク    hundred; 100   
Please LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
マイ   every, each
Please LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
ニチ   ジツ   sun; day   ひ    -か    
ダン   たま bullet   はず to bounce   ひ to play (an instrument)   
Please LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
ジョウ   ショウ   うえ above   うわ- above   あげる to raise   あがる to rise   かみ first half, upper part   のぼ to climb   のぼせる to bring up, to raise   のぼ to bring up   
シュ   hand   て    た-    
Problem with this grammar? Question or comment? Please CONTACT US.
Kanshudo is your AI Japanese tutor, and your constant companion on the road to mastery of the Japanese language. To get started learning Japanese, just follow the study recommendations on your Dashboard. You can use Quick search (accessible using the icon at the top of every page) to look up any Japanese word, kanji or grammar point, as well as to find anything on Kanshudo quickly. For an overview, take the tour.
×