connective N4 common casualpolitewritten

し — and (what's more) / listing reasons

し

Meaning

~, and what's more ~ / ~, plus ~ — stacks reasons or qualities, presenting them as cumulative grounds (often for an implied conclusion)

し joins clauses while signalling 'and on top of that' — it piles up reasons or features that all point the same way. Often it leads to a stated or unstated conclusion: 安やすいし、近ちかいし(、ここにしよう) ('it's cheap, and it's close, [so let's pick here]'). A single trailing し can hint at an unspoken reason: 疲つかれたし… ('I'm tired, and…'). Unlike から, it presents reasons as a loose accumulation rather than one direct cause.

Key sentence

この店みせは安やすいし、おいしい。

This place is cheap, and what's more, it's tasty.

Formation

Attaches to	Form	Example
Plain-form clauses (and です/ます in polite speech)	… plain + し、…	近ちかいし / 静しずかだし / 学生がくせいだし

Examples

今日きょうは寒さむいし、家いえにいよう。

It's cold today, so (for that and other reasons) let's stay home.

彼かれは優やさしいし、頼たよりになる。

He's kind, and on top of that, dependable.

もう遅おそいし、そろそろ帰かえります。

It's late, and (anyway) I'll be heading home soon.

Easily confused with

から (reason) から gives one direct cause ('because X, Y'); し offers reasons as a loose, expandable pile ('X, and what's more, …'), often softer and implying there's more behind the decision. 〜し〜し Repeating し (〜し〜し) makes the cumulative listing explicit, spelling out two or more grounds side by side.

Notes

A clause ending in a lone し often deliberately trails off, leaving the conclusion (or a further reason) unsaid: 高たかいし…（やめておく）.

See し in real sentences

Jengo shows し the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.

Study it in Jengo

Sources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.

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