I'm trying to say "I think I can speak a little Japanese because I have
studied a lot".

My translation attempt:

> わたしはちょっと日本語を話せるようになった思うからたくさんべんきょうすることがある

Does it sound right?
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2015-04-06T14:32:56.620
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translation expressions
How to express "I think I can speak a little Japanese because I have studied a lot" in Japanese?
This doesn't sound right at all to me and it's obviously translated via google

I would say:

日本語を勉強したので、ちょっとできると思う
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2015-04-06T15:35:48.490
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We don't do translation checks, so I'm just giving a number of pointers

  * you're using **AからB** to try to construct "A because of B", but in fact it translates to " **B because of A** ", so you need to switch the statements to get the intended causality. This is the same for other conjunctions with a similar meaning, like ので (see [When to use ～ので vs ～から](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/4715/when-to-use-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%AE%E3%81%A7-vs-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89)).

  * なっ **た思う** is no good. なった can be used to end a sentence or to modify a noun. To say _that_ you thought something, you need to use the quoting particle と to give なっ **たと思う**.

  * 勉強【べんきょう】 **することがある** is grammatically correct, but makes it sound like you are counting how many times you have studied Japanese. Here it might be better to use (the correct conjugation of (see below)) 勉強している "I'm [currently] studying" or "I have been studying".

  * Since your main clause is in the past tense (ようにな **った** ), the cause needs to be at least as old as the effect, that is, use the past tense here: 勉強してい **た**. Alternatively, you could say

> 勉強しているから、[…] 話せると思います。

or, (trying to improve on your old construction)

> 勉強し **た** ことがあるから、[…] 話せるようになっ **た**
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2015-04-06T15:46:39.080
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Casual

日本語をよく勉強したから少し話せると思う

More polite (ます-form)

(私は)日本語をよく勉強しましたから少し話せると思います
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2015-04-06T20:23:42.893
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Depends on the exact context but I might say:

僕は日本語をたくさん勉強してきたんで少しだけ喋れるようになったと思うんだ。
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2015-04-06T20:31:45.493
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