Compund Particles 3 - means, cause, basis, source of information - ni yotte, wo tsujite, wo motte

The particle de represents (1) place, (2) materials, (3) means, tools, (4) cause or reason, (5) scope, (6) conclusion(?), (7) contents so has various meanings. In the way, for example, that when de is attached to park, you can understand it means place where action occurs you can interpret the use of de from the nature of the noun that precedes it.

However because de has many meanings, it can sometimes be difficult to understand. Especially in long sentences, if you use a form for de that is more specialised and easier to understand then the relationship between the noun and the predicate concerned is more easy to understand. Compound particles are used for this purpose.

In this section 3 expressions with the meaning of de, especially in relation to means, cause, evidence are dealt with. One part of this includes forms such as okage de that us used to modify nouns and express cause, reason in compound sentences. These so called connective particles are dealt with here but more details can be found in section 31.