日本語道場
Nihongo Dojo — N3 → N2
N3
~せいで
~ sei de
because of (blame)
When to use it
Use ~せいで to attribute an undesirable result to a cause, with an implicit tone of blame or fault-finding. In business writing it appears in incident reports, apologies (blaming one's own oversight) and explanations of missed targets — though pointing at an external party can sound accusatory, so 「~の影響で」「~により」 are often preferred in outward-facing email. Contrast with ~おかげで (favorable outcome) and the noncommittal ~せいか ("perhaps because").
Formation
Examples
Because of the system outage, the monthly report is delayed.
Because my checks were lax, we caused the client trouble.
Because of the weak yen, material costs are exceeding projections.
Because the procedures are vague, on-site judgments are inconsistent.
I'd rather we stopped blaming the lost deal on the economy.