The many ways to say “and” in Japanese

Question

In English, we just have one word for the conjunction and which works just fine for many categories, but in Japanese, there are separate words:

• と joins nouns together in a closed list
• や joins nouns together in an open list
• そして does it do something like joining clauses or run-on sentences?
• て joins adjectives
• たり joins verbs?
• も which I naively thought of as only meaning "too/also".
• し joins adjectives and verbs?

When can each be used and how should the language learner keep their usages straight and not confuse them?

Answer 1

と and や are used to connect two or more nouns.

Most of the time, と can only be used for a fixed number of items like:

"キーボードとマウスいる".

(we need) keyboard and mouse

But や is used when there is a variable/unknown length like:

"キーボードやマウス、そしてLANケーブルとかいるかも"

(we need) keyboard, mouse and probably LAN cables also.

Also や has some sense for "OR" or "AND/OR" in

「日本で寿司や刺身を食べたことがまだありません」

I haven't tried Sushi and/or Sashimi in Japan yet.

But と only means "AND"

「日本で寿司と刺身を食べたことがまだありません」

I haven't tried Sushi and Sashimi in Japan yet.

そして is used as a conjuntion between two phrases and has the sense of meaning "then ..."

～たり is used to connect two verbs and is used in the sense of giving examples, like Lukman mentioned in the comments:

泣いたり笑ったりのは生きてるものさ

～くて is used to connect to adjectives like:

彼女は美しくて、格好いい

She is pretty and has wonderful style

And yes, ～し～し is used to connect two adjectives, with exclusive positive or negative senses:

この部屋は綺麗だし広いし間取りもいいから人気がある。

This room is clean, wide and also good partition, so most of the people like it.

あの部屋は汚いし暗いし駅からも遠いからなかなか借り手が見つかりません。

That room is (a bit) dirty, (kind of) dark, and far from the station, so nobody bothers to rent it.

Normal usage of ～も is too / also, but there is some usage as "AND"

これもそれもあれも全部欲しいな

I like to have this, that and also that one, basically all.

And there are some more forms like ～かつ～ (plus .... or not only ... but also ...)

必要かつ十分

requirements and fulfill

and also 及びに、並びに、ともに、おまけに have a similar usage to "AND"

Answer 2

Suffice it to say, there are a lot more ways to join words or phrases together in Japanese than there are in English, where "and" seems to do the job for nearly every kind of word ("coats and goats," "hard and fast," "eat and drink," "to and fro"...)

It would be difficult to make an exhaustive list of all the ways to do this in Japanese, but here are some common ones.

To join nouns

• と Plain and simple "and."

  猫と犬 (cats and dogs)

• や Indicates a non-exhaustive list of similar nouns.

  猫や犬 (cats and dogs, etc.)

• も...も Analogous to "both...and..." in English.

  猫も犬も (both cats and dogs)

To join adjectives

• -くて Plain and simple "and," but can sometimes imply that the second adjective follows from the first.

  甘くておいしい (sweet and [thus] delicious)

To join verbs

• -て form Simplest way to join verbs. Can sometimes imply order of occurrence or cause and effect.

  行って来る (go and [then] come back)

  英語を勉強して話せた (studied English and was [thus] able to speak)

• -たり A non-exhaustive list of actions.

  食べたり飲んだりする (eat and drink, etc.)

To join clauses

• し A list of reasons, most of which are left unsaid.

  ねむいし仕事があるし (I'm sleepy, and I have work to do, and...[I really don't want to] [so I can't do what you're asking])

Answer 3

Don't forget that there are also many grammatical constructs whose core meaning essentially boils down to "and".

それに／更に（さらに）・（〜に）くわえて -- "(and) in addition (to) ~, ..."
〜上 -- "(and) on top of that, ..."
（〜にも）まして -- "(and) more than that, ..."

This complicates things a little more by adding more options to choose from. But overall, I think the nuances of each meaning should help you choose the right one. The hard part is remembering all the choices you have.