connective N4 common casualpolitewritten
それで — and so
それで
Meaning
- and so / because of that — opens a sentence, taking the previous statement as the cause of what follows
Key sentence
朝寝坊した。それで会社に遅刻した。
I overslept. That's why I was late for work.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| sentence-initial, joining to the preceding sentence | [cause]。それで [result]。 | 雨だった。それで中止した |
Examples
道が混んでいた。それで予定が狂った。
The roads were jammed, and so my schedule fell apart.
「昨日熱があってね。」「それで休んだの？」
"I had a fever yesterday." "So that's why you took the day off?"
When you can't use it
- それで links a result to a cause already stated as a separate sentence; it does not join two clauses inside one sentence the way ので/から do (×遅刻したそれで → use 〜て or 〜ので).
Easily confused with
Notes
- On its own as a prompt, それで？ means 'And then? / So what happened?', urging the speaker to continue.
See それで in real sentences
Jengo shows それで the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar.