Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 2: 9/12

And

The last と in a group is generally omitted.

Structure

Noun +

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Particle

  • Word Type

    Case Marking Particle

  • Register

    Standard

About と

is a particle that is often thought of as meaning 'and' in English, which is usually how it can be translated. In a broader sense, simply shows that there is a relationship of 'compilation' between (A) and (B). That relationship could be existing together (translated as 'and'), or performing an action together (translated as 'with').

In this case, we will focus on the 'and' translation. A full description of as 'with' can be found here.

is required after every noun that it is grouped with. However, the last in a sentence will often be omitted, if there are several.

In this example, we can see that the last noun in the group (pencil) does not require the particle , although it is considered more correct to have it. In conversation, the last will almost always be omitted.

Examples

--:--

    (さかな)バナナ。

    Fish and bananas.

    トムジェリー。

    Tom and Jerry.

    コーヒー牛乳(ぎゅうにゅう)

    Coffee and milk.

    (かわ)(たき)

    River and waterfall.

    これそれ(わたし)ものです

    This and that are mine.

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と – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (8 in total)

  • Jake

    Jake

    and・with

    Structure

    • Noun + + Noun
    • Noun + + Verb

    [When listing nouns: と - Exhaustive, や - Non-exhaustive]

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  • misterkite

    misterkite

    We use ‘to’ when listing everything and ‘ya’ when we don’t list everything, right?

  • mrnoone

    mrnoone

    Hey

    Yes, that’s right.
    So in other words, AとB simply means “A and B”, while AやB means “A and B among other things”.

    So if you don’t want to list all elements of some group, but some examples you use や.

    But remember it is only used with nouns.

    とか is more flexible but less polite/formal.

  • Solista

    Solista

    I don’t really understand what the exhaustive or non-exhaustive means. Help?

  • matt_in_mito

    matt_in_mito

    An exhaustive list is where you list everything in a given situation.

    There are a pen and a pencil on the table:
    テーブルのうえにペンと鉛筆えんぴつがあります。
    This means that the only things on the table are the pen and the pencil.

    However, a non-exhaustive list would be listing only some of the things in a given situation.

    The closest translation would be something like:
    There are such things as a pen and a pencil (amongst others) on the table.
    テーブルのうえにペンや鉛筆えんぴつなどがあります。

    Hope this is understandable.

  • Solista

    Solista

    Ah. That makes more sense. Thank you!

  • deltacat3

    deltacat3

    私はフルーツとパンも食べます。
    I eat fruit and (also) bread.

    When a list is marked by も is it always inclusive to the entire list or just the last listed thing?
    The difference between “fruit and (also) bread.” or “(also) fruit and bread.”

  • Asher

    Asher

    Hi there, and sorry for the ‘very’ late reply!

    も always highlights the last thing in the list as being something unique included as part of the group that is being listed before it. It also often highlights that it is not often part of the group being listed before it, but in this case is. Basically one of the two following things.

    (A) is a group to which (Bも) is a part, but not the main topic.
    (A) is a group to which (Bも) is surprisingly a part, and still not the main topic.

    In both cases, whatever も highlights is not the ‘main’ thing. Just something small being added in for emphasis.

  • JusticeforNerds

    JusticeforNerds

    Not sure where else to mark it, but this may be a good addition or example sentence for the と grammar point somewhere in Bunpro.
    From a past N1 exam: この鍋は、炒め物に、揚げ物に何にでも使えて便利です。
    For whatever reason, I couldn’t wrap my head around this one at first. After discussing it with a Japanese native speaker and consulting the internet, I understood it as
    この鍋は、A と (meaning ‘and’) B でも使えて便利です。
    “As for this pot, you can use either A or B and it’s useful.”
    where A = 炒め物に、揚げ物に, literally “towards fried food, towards deep fried food”
    and B = 何に, literally “towards something.”

    Am I crazy or is that kind of hard to grasp?

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