thus,therefore和hence的区别和用法?英语文章??PainintheEnglish

thus,therefore和hence的区别和用法 英语文章 «PainintheEnglish

A simple way of distinguishing and using these words

accurately:

1. ‘Thus’ means ‘in this/that way’ - it relates to ‘HOW’

- the manner in which - this or that happens or comes about. It

has a practical flavour. ionally, you arrange things thus =

Traditionally, this is how you arrange things

2 .’Therefore’ means ‘for this reason’, or ‘because of

this or that’ - it relates to deductive reasoning, it tells WHY this

or that is so, or happened. eg. He was late and therefore missed

the bus = he was late and for this reason missed the bus

3. ‘Hence’ means ‘from this/that’ - it relates to WHERE

- position, or point in time; it tells from where or what, or to where

or what, something comes, derives, or goes eg. -i. Get thee hence!

= Get yourself away from here! -ii. Henceforth all entrances will

be guarded = From now on all entrances will be guarded -iii. She

got the job - hence her good spirits = She got the job and her

good spirits derive from that fact. (Note the different slant to

‘therefore’, which would also fit, but would say ” her good

spirits are due to (’because of’; ‘for that reason’) that”.

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October 2, 2010

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Posted by lys

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Filed in Usage

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22 comments

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It should be "You arrange things thusly." Thus modifies the

verb "arrange" here and is therefore behaving as an adverb.

healyjake October 5, 2010, 9:24pm

25 votes Permalink Report Abuse

True. Thus is usage clarified.

lys October 6, 2010, 1:38am

12 votes Permalink Report Abuse

It is very useful information that clears up the concepts

(synonymous English words) and their minor difference in English

writing.

Thanks to the editor for sharing this information.

Syed October 9, 2011, 6:23am

15 votes Permalink Report Abuse

Still non the wiser. Wish I was intelligent.

JJ74 June 11, 2012, 4:34am

17 votes Permalink Report Abuse

Thus: This thing is a balloon, and thus is made of rubber and

inflates when you blow into it.

Therefore: This thing inflates when you blow into it and is

made of rubber; therefore, it is a balloon.

Hence: This thing is called a balloon, hence it must inflate

and be made of rubber.

Monk August 2, 2012, 8:40am

66 votes Permalink Report Abuse

It sounds weird to me some stuff you wrote. As far as I know,

"Thus" is used for conclusions in the past. Ex. The troops fought

to a standstill, thus no winner was declared.

Unlike "Hence" which is used for future. Ex. I'm broke, hence

I will walk rather than taking the bus.

Don't forget the word "Thereby", which is very important as

well. In the case: ": This thing is a balloon, and thus is made of

rubber and inflates when you blow into it." It would sound better

if we say "...and thereby is made " since "Thereby"

means "". But I'm not sure. What do u think?

Irvin November 12, 2012, 12:10pm

12 votes Permalink Report Abuse

Interesting point Irvin, about the word "Thereby". Nowadays,

it seems that it has become increasingly replaced with the word

"Therefore". They are oftentimes used interchangeably, however,

there does appear to be a difference between their definitions.

"Therefore" means "For that reason", whereas "Thereby"

means "By that means" or "Because of that".

After contemplating many various examples, I cannot think

of a specific case in which the use of one of the adverbs is favored

over the other. In every example, it appears that both words can

be successfully interchanged. I would love to see an example that

proves otherwise. More often than not, I'm fairly sure that it

comes down to the individual writer to determine which of these

words, along with hence, thus, etc., sound or look more

aesthetically pleasing.

Ex: After weeks of intense debates, the delegates finally came

to an accord and signed the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty, which

thereby calls for the immediate and complete abolition of nuclear

arms.

(I thought I had just thought of one, but I guess "therefore"

also works here. However, I feel that "thereby" looks more formal,

which appeals to the context, and sounds slightly better than

"therefore". Although, grammatically speaking - both are

explicitly correct.

And just to be a certified grammar nerd, in reference to your

example, "I'm broke, hence I will walk rather than taking the bus.";

"taking" should actually be replaced with "take". ;)

Furthermore, for the last part. Wouldn't it sound even better

if that sentence became "This thing is a balloon, thereby it is

made of rubber"? Basically remove the "and" while adding the

"it". Moreover, replacing "thereby" with "therefore" in this

example still works perfectly. And for some reason, I think

"therefore" sounds better in this case. Any thoughts?

Alexander January 14, 2013, 1:18am

2 votes Permalink Report Abuse

@Alexander - I more or less agree with your definition of

'thereby', although I'd tend more to 'in this way, in this manner'.

But the use in your examples is not how I understand the way we

use thereby:

My own version of your example might go something like:

"After weeks of intense debates, the delegates finally came

to an accord and signed the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty, thereby

establishing a framework for the next round of disarmament."

Here are example sentences from various dictionaries:

"Regular exercise strengthens the heart, thereby reducing

the risk of heart attack."

"Diets that are high in saturated fat and cholesterol tend to

clog up our arteries, thereby reducing the blood flow to our

hearts and brains."

"The aim of the military action was to open the roads to

Sarajevo and thereby end the capital's 40-month siege."

"He signed the contract, thereby forfeiting his right to the

property."

In each case it means 'in this way'. You could no doubt

substitute therefore in all these examples, but I think the meaning

would be slightly different - it would simply mean 'consequently'.

But interestingly, I think you could replace 'thereby' in all these

dictionary examples with 'so', which seems to be able to mean

both 'therefore' and 'in this way'.

And I'm afraid I don't think using 'therefore' in your examples

make an awful lot of sense:

"After weeks of intense debates, the delegates finally came

to an accord and signed the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty, which

therefore calls for the immediate and complete abolition of

nuclear arms."

Sorry, but I don't really get the logic here. 'The Treaty simply

calls for the 'immediate end ...'. It doesn't call for this because the

debates came to an end or because the delegates signed the

accord. Personally, I wouldn't use either 'thereby' or 'therefore'

here.

And I don't think this one works either - "This thing is a

balloon, thereby it is made of rubber". My dictionary defines

'thereby' as being - "used to introduce the result of the action or

situation mentioned". A balloon is not made if rubber as a result

of it's being a balloon, surely? Isn't that putting the cart before

the horse?

Sorry to be a bit negative ;), but I think there is a clear

difference between 'thereby' and 'therefore'.

Warsaw Will January 14, 2013, 7:09am

6 votes Permalink Report Abuse

Sorry, this is going to sound like a lesson, but I am a teacher,

and I write a language blog for foreign learners, so that’s how

I’m used to doing it. (In fact this has given me an idea for a blog

post). This is what I would tell my students:

1. The most common way to talk about result is to use ‘so’.

In this meaning (‘as a result’), ’so’ is a conjunction and

usually follows a comma:

“He enjoys his job and the salary is good, so he is reluctant

to think about moving.”

2a. In more formal language we can use ‘therefore,

consequently, thus' and 'hence' with the same meaning as ‘so’.

They are adverbs and normally start a new sentence, although

'therefore' and 'consequently' can follow a semicolon and are

usually followed by a comma:

“He enjoys his job and the salary is good; therefore /

consequently, he is reluctant to think about moving.”

“He enjoys his job and the salary is good. Thus / Hence he

is reluctant to think about moving.”

2b. Alternatively, all four can be used after a comma when

combined with ‘and’:

“He has both an enjoyable job and a good salary, and

therefore / consequently / thus / hence, he is reluctant to think

about moving.”

2c. In this sense, despite what lys says, I believe (and

dictionaries suggest) all four words to be interchangeable with

little or no difference in meaning, the only real difference being

in formality. In the dictionary entries below, 'thus', 'hence' and

'consequently' are all marked as synonyms of 'therefore'.

3. ‘Hence’ and ‘thus’ (but not ‘therefore’ or

‘consequently’) can be followed by a noun or noun phrase

instead of a clause, in which case they normally follow a comma.

In fact 'hence' is usually used like this, but a subject-verb clause

is also possible. The meaning is virtually the same ('as a result of

this'):

“He enjoys his job and the salary is good, hence / thus his

reluctance to think about moving.”.

4a. ‘Thus’ can also be used to mean ‘in this way’, and

in this meaning is interchangeable with ’thereby’. They are

often followed by an -ing form (present participle):

“He has been given a large salary increase, thus / thereby

enabling him to buy a larger house”.

4b. 'Thus' with the meaning of 'in this way' or 'like this' can

also be used at the end of a sentence - "You slide the paper in

thus", "I spoke to him thus".

5. Hence literally means ‘ from here’, as in “ Get thee

hence!,” but like the rest of its family - ‘thence, whence, hither,

thither’ and ‘whither’ is not used like this much in modern

English. But we do use it to mean "from now " in idiomatic

expressions like “Ten years hence”, and the words "henceforth,

henceforward".

6. Although those expressions do indeed refer to the future,

I can't remember having seen anything suggesting that ‘hence’

in the meaning of 'as a result' only refers to the future or that

‘thus’ only refers to the past. Both these sentence seem fine

to me:

“Sales have been good this year and thus we’ll be able to

pay out larger bonuses than expected.”

“He spent his formative years in India. Hence his extensive

knowledge of Indian culture.”

My problem with lys is that he seems to think that a word

like 'hence' or 'thus' can only have one meaning. But dictionaries

give these two words at least two meanings each. As far as I'm

concerned, in his example sentence - "He was late and therefore

missed the bus", any of the other three words (or indeed 'so')

could substitute for 'therefore' without any change in meaning

(although I'd accept that of the four, 'therefore' is the most

natural-sounding).