What is the difference between と, たら and 時【とき】?

Question

First, I came across this sentence using と in a way I've never encountered before.

ピノキオはうそを吐くと、鼻が長くなります。

My translation: When/As Pinocchio tells lies his nose becomes longer.

After a little research and based on the context of the sentence I figured this use of と must mean 'when' or 'as' as opposed to the 'and' meaning but then I started wondering what the difference is between this 'when' and the 時【とき】 'when' and the たら 'when' in terms of usage.

Answer 1

They could all be translated to 'when' in English but:

AとB in this case indicates that A first happens, then immediately after B happens. This is the case in your example!

たら can have more uncertainty in it, i.e. it can be used to express sentences where you'd use 'if' in English.

I think of とき as 'the time when' or 'everytime when'.

Just offering my two cents here. I am still learning too!:) I'm not good enough to provide the lengthy grammatical replies you usually get on this site, so sorry if it's a bit short. Anyway, at this level I find shorter answers more helpful. Hope you agree:)

Answer 2

Causality

In broad terms, I've noticed three kinds of constructions that loosely correlate to "if / then". The main differences between these appear to be differences in emphasis and causal relationship.

• 行くと XX
  Tells us whenever someone goes, XX happens. XX is an inevitable consequence of the verb.
• 行けば XX
  Tells us that only if someone goes, XX happens. The verb is a precondition of XX.
• 行ったら XX
  Seems to be the most neutral. If [verb], then XX; or possibly, after [verb], then XX. This is less causally strict, and seems a bit more casual in that respect: "if you happen to go, or on the off chance that you go, then XX".

Timing

Various constructions are used to describe the order of events. Among these,

• 行くと XX
  This still has strong causal overtones, so this is probably best glossed as "whenever [verb], XX".
• 行ったら
• 行ってから
  These two are often regarded as synonymous when describing the order of events. One teacher of mine even suggested that -たら was a contraction of -てから, though it bears noting that Shogakukan, Daijirin, and others state that the -たら ending is the potential form of past auxiliary た, itself a contraction of たる, a contraction of て + ある.
  The basic sense is "[verb] happens, and then ..."
• 行くとき
  Literally, "the time when [subject] goes". This more specifically refers to the point in time when the [verb] happens.