そして / それで / それから: Narrative, Result, and Sequence in Japanese
The difference between そして, それで, and それから comes down to three jobs that English often flattens into one word. そして adds and narrates, それで states a result, and それから marks the next thing in time.123 All three can become "and" or "then" in English, which is why beginners often grab whichever one comes to mind and quietly get it wrong.
Overview: three connectors, one false friend "and"
そして, それで, and それから are all 接続詞 (conjunctions) that begin a fresh sentence or clause and point back at what was just said.45 They share a slot and a rough English gloss, but each marks a different relationship between what came before and what comes after. The task is to pin down which relationship each one signals.
The one-line split is this: そして continues a narrative ("and / and then"), それで gives a result ("so / as a result"), and それから marks sequence in time ("and then / after that").123 Once that three-way distinction is clear, the rest is detail.
What "sentence-initial conjunction" (接続詞) means here
A 接続詞 (conjunction) is one of the parts of speech: an independent word (自立語) that does not inflect. It receives a preceding word, phrase, or sentence and links it to a following one, showing the relationship between them.4 The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 frames the same point as an uninflecting independent word that shows how the following matter relates to the matter stated before.5
That structural fact is what separates these three from clause-internal linkers like から or the て-form. A 接続詞 receives a preceding sentence and links to a following sentence; から and て attach inside a single sentence rather than starting a fresh one.4
Japanese sorts 接続詞 into standard subtypes, and these three split across them. The relevant zones are 順接 (logical or expected consequence, such as だから), 累加 / 添加 (addition, such as また), and the sequencing role.45 そして and それから sit in the addition and sequencing zone. それで sits in the 順接 (result) zone alongside だから.
JLPT level and where you meet them
Learner-reference sites tag そして and それから at N5, and それで at N4.678 The JLPT does not publish an official per-item grammar list, so treat these as conventional teaching bands, not hard cutoffs.
The banding itself is informative. そして and それから appear on essentially every N5 list. それで is consistently pushed to N4 because its cause-and-result reading is a step harder than simple "and / and then."8 All three are everyday, high-frequency connectors in both speech and writing. そして also carries a written, narrative flavor, covered under Good to know below.19
The one-line split: narrative vs result vs sequence
Each connector owns one relationship. The diagram below maps the three jobs to the three words before any detail.
そして = and / and then (narrative connection)
The dictionaries define そして as equivalent to そうして, the neutral "and / and so / in that way" connective.19 It simply continues or narrates. It adds the next thing or links events without asserting a cause. No causal sense is listed in either entry.19
冬が去り、そして春が来る。1
"Winter departs, and then spring comes."
It links separate sentences just as readily as it links clauses.
母は料理をする。そして、父は皿を洗う。6
"My mother cooks, and my father washes the dishes."
It also chains events across a span of time without insisting on tight succession.
昨日は朝7時に起きました。そして、夜10時半に寝ました。6
"Yesterday I woke up at 7 a.m. And then I went to bed at 10:30 p.m."
それで = so / as a result (cause and effect)
それで receives the preceding matter and treats it as the reason for what follows.2 The dictionaries gloss it explicitly as それだから / それゆえ / そういうわけで ("because of that / therefore / for that reason").210 This is the connector's defining job: the second clause is the consequence of the first.
納得できなくて、それでまた質問したのです。2
"I couldn't accept it, and so I asked again."
それで has a second listed sense: it can pick up what was just said to shift the topic or urge the other person to keep talking.2 That sense underlies the conversational それで？ prompt covered further below.
それで、これからどうしようか。2
"So, what shall we do from here?"
それから = and then / after that (temporal sequence)
それから says that the later matter occurs after the previously mentioned matter. The dictionaries gloss it as その次に ("next after that") and as そして.311 It also has a second sense of addition: adding a further item to what was just mentioned.3
Neither sense includes a causal claim. それから is pure chronology, or pure listing. That absence of cause is the line separating it from それで.311
家を出て、それから駅へ向かった。3
"I left the house, and then headed to the station."
In its additive sense it joins items in a list.
鉛筆それから下敷きを買った。3
"I bought a pencil and a writing pad."
朝ご飯はご飯、みそ汁、それから、魚ですよ。7
"Breakfast is rice, miso soup, and fish."
Form and position
How each one attaches
All three are 接続詞: independent, uninflecting words that start a sentence or clause, receive the preceding sentence, and link it to the following one.45 In practice, they sit at the front of the second sentence or clause. In writing, a comma usually follows.23
それから also has a non-接続詞 use worth separating out: それ ("that") plus から (the particle "from"), meaning "from that point on." This phrasal reading is distinct from the standalone 接続詞. It is the basis of the "since then" sense below.7
The verb-て-form plus から construction, 〜てから ("after doing X"), is a clause-internal grammar point, not the sentence-initial 接続詞 それから. The dictionary それから entries do not treat 〜てから, so do not assume the two are the same construction; they are different grammar.311
それから's second life: "since then" and "starting from"
Beyond simple "next," それから can anchor a stretch of time that begins at a referenced point: "since then / from then on." Read this as the phrasal それ + から ("from that") reading, not as a separate dictionary sense. It is attested at the learner-reference level.7
1年前に日本に来ました。それから、日本語を勉強しています。7
"I came to Japan a year ago. Since then, I have been studying Japanese."
Listing in order with それから and そして
それから builds an ordered or additive list ("A, それから B"), as in 「鉛筆それから下敷きを買った」 and the breakfast list above.37 そして likewise links list items and clauses as the neutral narrative connective. In fact, それから's temporal sense is glossed literally as そして.3
In the listing and sequencing role, the two connectors overlap. Both dictionaries acknowledge this by glossing それから as そして.311 Treat them as interchangeable list-linkers here: それから leans slightly toward marking each step in order, while そして simply narrates the additions.
Nuance and usage contexts
When そして and それから overlap (and when they don't)
The overlap is sourced directly: both dictionaries gloss the temporal sense of それから as そして.311 Conversely そして is glossed as そうして, with no temporal-priority requirement built in.19
Where they part: それから foregrounds "next, after that" (その次に, 続いて), while そして is looser narrative "and (then)" that does not by itself insist on strict sequence in time.311 In a strict step-by-step recounting, それから is the more pointed choice. そして is the neutral default.
Only the それから version below is verbatim-attested.3 To show the swap safely, picture the same scene with either connector in the bracket: 「家を出て、〔それから／そして〕駅へ向かった」. With それから, the sentence stresses the ordered "and-then-next" step. With そして, it merely narrates the continuation.
Why それで is not interchangeable with the other two
それで asserts a result: its core definition makes the second clause the consequence of the first (それを理由として, "taking that as the reason").210 Neither そして (= そうして, neutral) nor それから (temporal or additive, no cause) carries this causal claim in its definition.19311
Swapping それで for そして or それから therefore drops the cause-and-effect assertion. The events still line up, but the "as a result" link disappears. In the verbatim result example below, それで marks the asking as the consequence of not being convinced. Replacing it with それから would reduce the line to mere sequence, and replacing it with そして would reduce it to mere narration.2
納得できなくて、それでまた質問したのです。2
"I couldn't accept it, and so I asked again."
That second-clause "as a result" meaning is the one piece only それで supplies. If the relationship between your two clauses is genuinely causal, そして or それから cannot encode it. The reader will hear sequence, not cause.2
それで in conversation: the "so? and then?" prompt
The prompting use is a listed dictionary sense, not slang. それで picks up what was said and urges the other person to continue.2 The 精選版 phrases it as a use for prompting the other person's talk along.10
それで、どうなったの。2
"So, what happened then?"
Standalone それで？ as a listener's "so? and then?" prompt is the spoken form of this sense. It belongs to conversational register.210
それで and だから: two sides of the same cause
それで and だから both connect a cause to its result. They differ in which side they put first. それで receives a stated cause and gives the result.2 だから likewise takes the preceding matter as the reason and leads to the result that naturally follows.12
The dictionaries link them lexically. それで is glossed as それだから / それゆえ, and それだから is in turn glossed as だから.21013 So それで and だから sit in the same 順接 (result or expected-consequence) family.
The etymology ties this family to grammar the learner already knows. だから is 断定の助動詞「だ」 plus 接続助詞「から」: the assertive copula だ plus the reason particle から.1214 The result connector それで is the sentence-initial sibling of the から / ので reason clauses, with だから as the hinge.
親切な人だ。だからみんなに好かれる。12
"He's a kind person. That's why everyone likes him."
Good to know
それ + で / から points back at "that"
それで is それ ("that, just said") plus で, which reads as "with that, so" and lands on a result. それから is それ plus から ("from that"), which reads as "from that point, and then" and lands on sequence. そして has no それ, so it narrates forward rather than pointing back. This maps onto the dictionary glosses: それで ≈ それだから / それゆえ, それから = その次に, そして = そうして.1237
そして leans written; それで and それから are at home in speech
そして is defined as そうして, the narrative connective favored in 書き言葉 (written language).19 それで and それから are everyday conversational connectors, and それで even has a dedicated spoken prompting sense in それで？.278 Leaning on そして to chain every sentence tends to read as stiff narration. In speech, それから carries the sequencing load and それで carries the result load.
"Fix it by translating back" from English "and" misfires
It is tempting to map the English back to a connector: "so / therefore / that's why" to それで, "and then / after that" to それから, and plain "and / and also" to そして.123 The mapping is a useful sanity check, but all three can surface as English "and / then." English alone cannot be the guide. The cause-vs-sequence-vs-narration distinction has to be.
Reaching for それから when the relation is causal
A learner who wants "I couldn't accept it, so I asked again" sometimes writes 納得できなくて、それからまた質問した, treating "so" as sequence. The correct connector is それで, because only それで asserts that the second event happens as a result of the first.2
納得できなくて、それでまた質問したのです。2
"I couldn't accept it, and so I asked again."
だから is built on から, so それで joins the から family
だから is だ plus から, and それで is glossed as それだから / それゆえ, with それだから glossed as だから.2121413 The result connector learners first meet as それで is the sentence-initial sibling of the から / ので reason clauses, with だから as the hinge between them.
See also
- Japanese Conjunctions Overview: Clause-Linkers (接続助詞) vs. Sentence-Connectors (接続詞)
- から vs. ので: Cause and Reason in Japanese
- でも / しかし: Sentence-Initial "But" and "However" in Japanese
- しかも / それに: How to Say "On Top of That" and "What's More" in Japanese (Compounding Additives)
- The から Particle: From (Source and Reason)
- The Te-Form in Japanese: Uses (Linking, Cause, Light Imperative, Continuation)