kāpēc

See also: kapec and kapeć

Latvian

Etymology

From kā (“what[gen.]”) +‎ pēc (“after; for”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈkâːpêːts]

• Audio:

  (file)

• IPA^(key): [kâːˈpêːts]

• Audio:

  (file)

Adverb

kāpēc

1. (in questions involving cause, motive, purpose, answerable with jo “because”) why? for what reason? for what purpose?

   kāpēc tu nenāc? ― why aren't you coming?

   kāpēc darbs nav izdarīts? ― why isn't the work done?

   kāpēc viņš ir noskumis? ― why is he sad?

   “kāpēc jūs aizejat? es taču nedzenu jūs”, Līvja skarbi iesmējās ― “why are you leaving? I'm not driving you away,” Līvja laughed harshly

   kāpēc gan Ilga nepieņemtu viņa pasniegto roku? vai tad viņai nav vajadzīgs dzīvoklis? vai tad viņa negrib mācīties? ― why didn't Ilga take the hand he (had) offered? maybe she didn't need an apartment? or maybe she didn't want to study?

   kāpēc es visu to rakstu?... tāpēc, ka es ilgojos un slāpstu dzīvības un dzīves ― why am I writing all this? because

2. (in rhetorical questions, indicating something unnecessary, or which is not the case) why?, oh why?

   kāpēc iet, ja varam braukt! ― why go (on foot), if we can go (by car)?

   kāpēc Brīviņos nevar būt divdesmit pieci slaucami lopi? ― why can't there be 25 dairy cows in Brīviņi? (the speaker is annoyed)

Synonyms

• kādēļ
• kālab

Antonyms

• jo

Related terms

• tāpēc

Conjunction

kāpēc

1. why; used to introduce subordinate clauses indicating cause, motive, purpose, and relating to elements of the main clause with various different functions:

   (a) subject:

   nav saprotams, kāpēc viņš tā runā ― it is not clear why he talks like that

   viņiem te jāzina viss, kādi mēs esam un kāpēc neko nedarām ― they had to know everything, what we are and why we do nothing

   jaunajam cilvēkiemm ne prātā neienāca, kāpēc meitene tik labi atceras vēstuļu skaitu ― (the reason) why the girl remembered the number of letters so well didn't enter into the new guy's mind

   (b) (secondary) predicate, attributive complement:

   grūti uztvert stāsta galveno ideju, mērķi, kāpēc tās radīts ― it was difficult to perceive the story's main idea, the target (= reason) why it was created

   (c) direct object (e.g., reporting a question)

   es nezinu, kāpēc viņš nenāk ― I don't know why he isn't coming

   pajautāšu, kāpēc viņš raud ― I will ask why he is crying

   tagad sapratu arī to, kāpēc pie mājas nav pasta kastītes, kāpēc logos aizkaru vietā dzeltē papīri, kāpēc te tāds klusums... un kāpēc neviens no šejienes nav aicināts kažās ― then I understood why at (those) houses there are no mail boxes, why on the windows there is yellowish paper instead of curtains... and why nobody from here was invited to the wedding

2. (colloquial, syn. tāpēc) because; used to link two relatively independent sentence components

   meži gadu aiz gada tika tālāk izcirsti, kāpēc katru gadu meža cirtējiem bija jānocilpo aizvien garāks gabals ― the forests are being further and further cut down, because every ear the lumbermen had to cover a longer (= larger) piece (of territory)

Synonyms

• kādēļ
• kālab