I came across this construction in this NHK Easy article. Having never encountered ため, I Googled it and found it to mean “for the benefit of”, but that it usually uses の for nouns and に for verbs. But in the article, it is used at the end of a clause. Does it have the same meaning in this case?
This is the specific sentence:
日本の新幹線の技術ぎつを使っているため、走るときの音が静です
Does it mean something akin to “Japan’s Shinkansen technology is used for the benefit of the train running quietly” ?
Thanks for your help!
It used pretty much interchangeably with and without the に
There might be a very small nuance, but I’m not aware of any.
However, there is another meaning of ため without the に that can occur. It can mean “consequence; result; effect” or “affecting; regarding; concerning”
This looks like that usage to me.
There is, my former (native) teacher corrected me on it once. Not sure if I remember correctly, but as I understand it just ため is used to indicate the reason as in “A because B” while ために is more similar to ように, as in “A so that B”.
This. ため without に often means “because”.
Ah, it’s been a long time since I studied it in detail. But I don’t think that’s what is going on in this sentence anyway.
Maybe you guys are talking about what I was referring to anyway in the second part of my post. But I’m pretty sure the lack of に version can also be the “benefit” usage of at times. I’ll have to review later.
Pretty sure ため like this is often used in writing and newspapers as a “more polite” version of ので.
So instead of the difference being the absence of に it is context of being an article and the sentence itself.
ため can mean for the benefit of without the に. I’m 88% sure. lol
We just simplified your pretty grammar 
I’d translate the above sentence to something like (going by the op’s vocab translation, I don’t have easy access to a dict right now), “because of using Japan’s shinkansen technology, the sound of [it] running is quiet”.
Being found in NHK Easy, that makes a lot of sense.
It can, often at the end of a sentence. 私のためですよね etc. Generally if the “for the sake of” meaning doesn’t make sense in a translation, ため is used as “because”.
It is quiet when it runs because it uses Japanese shinkansen technology.
It runs quietly because it uses Japanese shinkansen technology.
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