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I wrote the following sentece:

Deshalb geht sie oft ins Ausland.

But I was corrected and told that the right way to say it would be:

Dadurch geht sie oft ins Ausland.

What is the different in these 2 adverbs? How could I know which one to say in every sentence?

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  • Usually deshalb and dadurch are interchangeable. Can you give more context to the sentence from your question? Maybe we can tell then, why dadurch is the preferred word to use in this case.
    – tallistroan
    Sep 8, 2018 at 9:08
  • I cannot really remember what the context was, since I was kinda lost in the conversation :P Could you maybe give me 2 different contexts, where each of them are used?
    – Enrique Moreno Tent
    Sep 8, 2018 at 9:16
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    Spontaneously I'd say "deshalb" is more flexible to use than "dadurch" so I wonder what context that was when dadurch is preferred over deshalb.
    – puck
    Sep 8, 2018 at 11:01

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»Deshalb« means always »for that reason«, »dadurch« can have this meaning.

Example for this meaning:

Die Firma, für die sie arbeitet, unterhält lebhafte internationale Beziehungen. Deshalb / Dadurch geht sie oft ins Ausland.
(The company she works for has lively international relationships. That's why she often goes abroad.)

But »dadurch« can also mean »by / through the means of«.

Wortlos legte er den Herren ein Dokument vor. Dadurch beantwortete er die Frage.
(Without a word he presented a document to the gentlemen. By this means he answered the question.)

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    I would go a step further and say that the second meaning (by/through the means of) is the primary one.
    – RHa
    Sep 8, 2018 at 17:18
  • @RHa: Hard to say, I didn't start a ranking anyway.
    – Pollitzer
    Sep 8, 2018 at 18:49

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