ので details
write + because
kaku node
because; since — reason as circumstance
ちょっと頭が痛いので、先に帰るね。
chotto atama ga itai node, saki ni kaeru ne.
I've got a bit of a headache, so I'm heading home early. casual
来週は出張なので、会議に出られません。
raishuu wa shutchou na node, kaigi ni deraremasen.
I'm on a business trip next week, so I can't attend the meeting. neutral
- contraction
Examples
because / since — the reason offered as shared, objective circumstance
ちょっと頭が痛いので、先に帰るね。
chotto atama ga itai node, saki ni kaeru ne.
I've got a bit of a headache, so I'm heading home early. casual
来週は出張なので、会議に出られません。
raishuu wa shutchou na node, kaigi ni deraremasen.
I'm on a business trip next week, so I can't attend the meeting. neutral
電車が遅れておりますので、今しばらくお待ちください。
densha ga okurete orimasu node, ima shibaraku o machi kudasai.
The train is delayed, so please wait a little longer. formal
Formation
{V}のでattaches to dictionary formplain clause + のでattaches to plain clausei-adj + ので (寒いので)attaches to i-adjectivena-adj + なのでattaches to na-adjective{N}なのでattaches to noun
Variant notes
- んで — spoken clip — 時間[じかん]ないんで帰[かえ]ります; stays in speech-like registers (chat, texts), not formal writing.
Notes
Related patterns
Similar
から asserts the reason as the speaker's own case and comfortably fronts commands, refusals, and opinions; ので presents it as neutral circumstance, so requests and excuses read softer with ので (遅れますので) and pushier with から.
Both ride the explanatory の — ので hands the reason to the NEXT clause (止まっていたので遅れた), のです/んです offers the whole sentence AS the owed explanation (止まっていたんです); one connects, the other concludes.
Both hand over a reason — なくて is the negative clause's own て-link, loose and often trailing into feeling (行けなくて残念), while ので wraps a full clause of either polarity into an explicit because.
Lookalikes
One kana apart on the identical attachment (雨なので／雨なのに) — ので gives the reason for what follows, のに protests that what follows defied it; dropping the wrong final syllable silently flips the sentence's logic.