How can I tell the reason after the fact in the second part of the sentence

Question

Let's make an easy example sentence

ラーメンが好きだから、毎日食堂で食べます。

In real life conversations I sometimes start a sentence with the second part

毎日食堂で食べます

Then I want to tell the reason for this and I always try to somehow connect the sentences, but I don't know how. In the English language I could do it like this:

Because I like Ramen, I am eating everyday in the cafeteria.

And then I could switch it around and do it like this:

I am eating everyday in the cafeteria, because I like Ramen.

While in Japanese I always start to stutter and then I just begin a new sentence which goes like this:

ラーメンが好きですから。

or:

理由はラーメンが好きです。

I am not sure if I'm overlooking something, but I think that there must be a smoother way to tell the reason after the fact without making a new sentence. I think you could do it somehow with the particle "で", but it kind of doesn't sound right to me.

Answer 1

Japanese is a head-final language, and there is no "formal" way to say the reason after the conclusion part within a single sentence.

You can split the sentence into two:

毎日食堂でラーメンを食べます。(ラーメンが)好きだからです。

Or using explanatory-no:

毎日食堂でラーメンを食べます。(ラーメンが)好きなんです。

Or explicitly using なぜなら ("because") or 理由は ("the reason is"):

毎日食堂でラーメンを食べます。なぜならラーメンが好きだからです。
毎日食堂でラーメンを食べます。理由はラーメンが好きだからです。

Alternatively, it's possible to replace the period with a comma and "pretend" it's a single sentence:

毎日食堂でラーメンを食べます、好きなので。

This nonstandard word order makes the sentence look informal and colloquial. You should avoid this in formal writings unless you do want to vividly simulate a casual conversation.

Or you can form a compound sentence using が/けれども/etc:

私は毎日食堂でラーメンを食べるのですが、それはラーメンが好きだからです。

IMHO, you don't have to hesitate to split the sentence into two if you really want to say the conclusion first.

理由はラーメンが好きです means "the reason likes ramen", which makes no sense.