と and や and と and や
“The great will not condescend to take anything seriously.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The easiest way to look at と is as a list. To be more specific an “exhaustive” list. This will also prep us for other version of と coming up in the next few pages.
I’d say the best way to translate と is by saying it means “with” (though note that this doesn’t always work). When we look at lists right now, we’ll see that the regular translation for it is “and” though we’ll see how “with” would also make sense in this context.
Take a look at the following sentence:
えいご と にほんご と フランスご
English and Japanese and French
と can be used to list off various things. The tricky part is that when you list things off like this (with と), it’s an “exhaustive” list. This means you’re listing everything in the list. What does this mean? Well, to answer that, we should look at another way to list things off: や.
えいご や にほんご や フランスご
English and Japanese and French (and some others)
When you use や to list things off, you aren’t necessarily listing off everything. When you use と, you are listing off everything.
えいご と にほんご と フランスご を ならいます
I will learn English and Japanese and French (and that is it)
えいご や にほんご や フランスご を ならいます
I will learn English and Japanese and French (and some other things I’m not listing off at the moment)
The と and や particle are both listing things off, but the meanings are slightly different.
こういちさん と 田中さん は テニス を する
As for Koichi and Tanaka (they) will play tennis (and nobody else except them will be playing tennis)
こういちさん や 田中さん は テニス を する
As for Koichi and Tanaka (they) will play tennis (and some other people will be playing with them too)
サラダ と ステーキ を たべた
I ate salad and steak (and nothing else)
サラダ や ステーキ を たべた
I ate salad and steak (and some other things)
Now, earlier on I mentioned that と ought to be translated as “with.” If you think about it, listing things off would work with “with” as well (though not as well as “and,” admittedly).
デザート と ハンバーガー と りんご を たべました
I ate dessert with hamburger with apples
The words “and” and “with” are kind of similar. If you have a dog and a cat, you also have a dog with a cat. Still, when you list with と (or や for that matter) it tends to be translated as and, which makes a bit more sense in English. I just wanted to show how with still works too!
Now let’s expand on this a little bit.