Is それで parsed by Japanese speakers as its own unique word, or それ + で? According to my dictionary, the word > means > and; thereupon; because of that while > means > that (indicating an item or person near the listener, the action of the listener, or something on their mind) **Question:** Is parsed by Japanese speakers as its own distinct word having nothing to do with , or is it seen as the combination + ? I ask because if I squint my eyes and interpret > as "through () that ()", it kind of resembles "because of that" (the definition provided above for ).

It's technically two words, ("that") + ("with "), but it's treated almost as a one fixed word meaning "So..." or "And...".

is sometimes used even at the very beginning of a conversation (English "so" happens to be used like this, too), so the literal meaning of is often not important when people say .