In this skill
Lesson 9 calls chaining the single most important technique in the course, and it’s easy to see why: it’s the difference between owning a hundred one-clause sentences and being able to say something. Every joiner you need is already yours — dakara (so), demo (but), kedo (though), sorekara / soshite (and then), ja (well then) — and so are the moves that stand in for the grammar the course leaves out: laying out both branches instead of an “if,” pairing a plain fact with a feeling word instead of a “would have,” tagging a guess with tabun, reaching back with mae ni.
What the lessons couldn’t give you is practice at length. A travel scene hands you one line at a time; it rarely asks you to glue two clauses, let alone three. So the joiners get introduced and then barely used. This skill is the fix: every card is a short chain — two or three clauses of ordinary, useful Japanese — so the seams between clauses land as fast as the clauses themselves.
There’s nothing new here. No new grammar, no new words — just your own pieces, joined the way real speech joins them, and spoken by a different voice each time, thirty in all, because in the field the words arrive in every timbre and your ear shouldn’t lean on one narrator.
As always: tap, listen first, work out the whole thing, then check yourself. Tap again as often as you like.
So — dakara
The cause-and-effect join: a fact, then what you did (or will do) about it. Dakara opens the second sentence and answers the unspoken why.
Onaka ga itai desu. Dakara, byouin ni ikimasu.
Kyou wa samui desu. Dakara, koohii ga nomitai desu.
Yasui desu. Dakara, mittsu kaimashita.
Isha ga imasu. Dakara, daijoubu desu.
Nihongo wa muzukashii desu. Dakara, yukkuri itte kudasai.
But — demo
The turn. State one thing, then swing the other way. Demo opens the second sentence — the everyday “but.”
Takushii o yobimashita. Demo, kimasen deshita.
Kono pan wa oishii desu. Demo, chiisai desu.
Kusuri o nomimashita. Demo, netsu ga arimasu.
Sakana o tabemashita. Demo, niku wa tabemasen deshita.
Eki wa tooi desu. Demo, konbini wa chikai desu.
Though — kedo
Kedo is demo’s gentler cousin, and it usually sits at the seam — right after the first desu, not at the head of a new sentence: takai desu kedo, kaimashita, “it’s pricey, though I bought it anyway.” Same softening, tighter join. This is the shape you’ll hear most, so it’s the one drilled here.
Takai desu kedo, kaimashita.
Densha wa hayai desu kedo, takai desu.
Basu wa osoi desu kedo, yasui desu.
Onaka wa daijoubu desu kedo, atama ga itai desu.
Koohii wa nomimashita kedo, gohan wa tabemasen deshita.
And then — sorekara / soshite
One thing after another. Both open the second sentence; sorekara leans toward “after that,” soshite toward a plain “and.” Either way, you’re stringing events into an order.
Ginkou ni ikimashita. Sorekara, konbini ni ikimashita.
Pan o kaimashita. Sorekara, koohii o nomimashita.
Kusuri o kaimashita. Sorekara, hoteru ni kaerimashita.
Kippu o kaimasu. Soshite, densha ni norimasu.
Yasai o tabemashita. Soshite, kudamono mo tabemashita.
Yoyaku o shimashita. Soshite, hoteru ni tomarimashita.
Eki ni ikimashita. Sorekara, kippu o kaimashita.
Kippu o misemashita. Soshite, densha ni norimashita.
Menyuu o mimashita. Soshite, osusume o tabemashita.
Well then — ja
The pivot. Someone says something, you take it in, and ja turns it into a decision — “in that case…” It’s how you close a little exchange.
Takai desu ne. Ja, are o kudasai.
Muzukashii desu ne. Ja, eigo de onegaishimasu.
Yasumi desu ka. Ja, ashita kimasu.
Jikan desu. Ja, kaerimashou.
This, or that — laying out both ways
The course has no “if.” Instead you ask the question aloud and answer each way — one branch, then the other. It sounds odd written in English, but spoken it’s perfectly natural, and it covers every “if… then…” you’ll need.
Ookii desu ka. Kaimasen. Chiisai desu ka. Kaimasu.
Ame desu ka. Takushii o yobimasu. Ii tenki desu ka. Densha ni norimasu.
Yasui desu ka. Futatsu kaimasu. Takai desu ka. Hitotsu kaimasu.
Mizu ga arimasu ka. Nomimasu. Arimasen ka. Kaimasu.
The thing that didn’t happen — fact, then feeling
The course has no “would have.” Instead you state the plain fact and add a feeling word — zannen desu (what a shame) or yokatta desu (what a relief). Two short clauses carry the whole regret, or the whole relief.
Yoyaku wa dekimasen deshita. Zannen desu.
Osusume o tabemashita. Yokatta desu.
Kinou wa yasumi deshita. Zannen desu.
Netsu wa arimasen deshita. Yokatta desu.
Maybe — tabun
The guess tag. Drop tabun in front of any statement and it becomes “probably.” No new grammar — one word, and the whole sentence goes soft.
Tabun, are wa atarashii desu.
Ashita wa tabun ame desu.
Isha wa tabun imasu.
Tabun, mise wa mou yasumi desu.
Have you ever — mae ni
Reaching into the past. Mae ni (“before”) plus a plain past verb asks whether someone has ever done a thing — the course’s stand-in for “have you ever.” Handy for small talk, and for finding out what a companion already knows.
Mae ni Kyoto ni ikimashita ka.
Mae ni sushi o tabemashita ka.
Mae ni kono kusuri o nomimashita ka.
Mae ni kaado o tsukaimashita ka.
The point isn’t these exact chains — it’s the habit of not stopping at one clause. Once the joiners land by ear, you can glue two, three, however many of your own pieces on the fly: a fact and what it made you do, a hope and its catch, both ways a thing might go. That’s the move that turns a phrasebook into a conversation.