connective N3 common casualpolitewritten

おかげ — thanks to / owing to (a good outcome)

おかげ

Meaning

thanks to ~ / owing to ~ — a noun crediting a good result to a person or cause

おかげ is the noun for the help or cause you owe a good outcome to. As 〜のおかげだ it gives credit (あなたのおかげだ, 'it's thanks to you'); the set phrase おかげさまで ('thanks to you / I'm fine, thank you') is a staple of polite exchange. Its valence is *positive* — the mirror image of せい ('fault'). The connective form is おかげで.

Key sentence

合格ごうかくできたのは先生せんせいのおかげです。

It's thanks to you, teacher, that I passed.

Formation

Attaches to	Form	Example
Noun + の / plain clause / na-adj な / i-adj + おかげ	Nの / 〜 plain + おかげ(だ)	友達ともだちのおかげ / 助たすけてくれたおかげ

Examples

おかげさまで、元気げんきにしています。

Thanks to you, I'm doing well.

今日きょうがあるのは家族かぞくのおかげだ。

I owe where I am today to my family.

皆みなさんのおかげで成功せいこうしました。

It's thanks to everyone that it succeeded.

Easily confused with

せい Opposite valence: おかげ credits a *good* result ('thanks to'); せい blames a *bad* one ('the fault of'). 〜おかげでおかげ is the noun ('the credit owed'); おかげで is its connective form linking the cause to the good result that follows.

Notes

おかげさまで is fixed and humble — used even when the listener didn't directly help. Ironic use of おかげで (blaming via mock-thanks) exists but is marked.

See おかげ in real sentences

Jengo shows おかげ the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.

Study it in Jengo

← Back to the grammar tree