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In English we just have one word for the conjunction "and" which works just fine for many jobs. But in Japanese these jobs are separate and there are separate words for them:

• "と" (to) - joins nouns together in a closed list
• "や" (ya) - joins nouns together in an open list
• "そして" (soshite) - does it do something like joining clauses or run-on sentences?
• The "-くて" (-kute) ending, joins adjectives
• "-たり" (-tari) - joins verbs?
• "も" (mo) - which I naively thought of as only meaning "too/also".
• "し" (shi) - joins adjectives and verbs?

Which functions does each serve and how should the language learner keep their usages straight and not confuse them?

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?

In English we just have one word for the conjunction "and" but in Japanese I so far only use "と" (to) but I know there is also at least "や" (ya) and "そして" (soshite) and the "-くて" (-kute) ending.

From comments to this question I'm also learning there are "~たり" (-tari) and possibly "も" (mo) which I naively think of as only meaning "too/also".

Are there any others and under which circumstances are each used. I know they are not even vaguely synonyms in Japanese but completely different from each other.

In English we just have one word for the conjunction "and" which works just fine for many jobs. But in Japanese these jobs are separate and there are separate words for them:

• "と" (to) - joins nouns together in a closed list
• "や" (ya) - joins nouns together in an open list
• "そして" (soshite) - does it do something like joining clauses or run-on sentences?
• The "-くて" (-kute) ending, joins adjectives
• "-たり" (-tari) - joins verbs?
• "も" (mo) - which I naively thought of as only meaning "too/also".
• "し" (shi) - joins adjectives and verbs?

Which functions does each serve and how should the language learner keep their usages straight and not confuse them?