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In my textbook book It states that the て from of a verb can be used to connect two activities together similar to the particle と and how it connects nouns but with verbs.

ex given in textbook: きょうは ろくじに おきて、 べんきょうしました

Today I got up at 6 and studied

I attempted to make a sentence myself but I'm not sure if I'm using it correctly here

My ex. おふろにはいって、 がっこうに いきました

What I was trying to say is "I took a shower and went to school" and while it feels correct, every time I look at it I can't help but imagine myself getting into a bath and riding it to school. Any explanation on why this is or isn't wrong and confirmation on whether or not I really am using て form to connect verbs properly would be appreciated.

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    A stretch limo with a jaccuzi would enable you to commute to school while bathing, but even then, that will not be expressed as 「おふろにはいってがっこうにいく」. It will be described as 「おふろにはいりながらがっこうにいく」.
    – user4032
    Commented Sep 19, 2015 at 16:13
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    I think that's because you おふろにはいって doesn't explicitly say you get out of the bath, so in this example its ambiguous. This sentence for example: おふろにはいって、ほんをよみました。Where did you read the book? If you change it up (maybe like ほんをよんで、おふろにはいりました), it becomes more clear the actions were done in succession.
    – silvermaple
    Commented Sep 19, 2015 at 21:28

2 Answers 2

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I think it works. After all, 「お風呂に入って寝る」 means "take a bath and go to bed".

I think (お風呂に)入る here is closer to English "take a bath" rather than "enter the bath". It's similar to how 上がる is closer to "enter a house" rather than "rise into the house" (see this answer).

If you need to talk about something during the bath, you can combine it with いる:

お風呂に入っている - I am taking a bath
６時にお風呂に入っていた - I was taking a bath at six
お風呂に入っているとき、電話がなった - The phone rang while I was taking a bath

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  • The て form can connect activities (whole sentences or verbs) as well adjectives (白くて大きい猫 : a big white cat) and nouns. Also, according to the context, activities connected with this form can show some temporal precedence (as stated in this answer) or even a weak causality relation.
    – N Gillain
    Commented Nov 21, 2018 at 2:28
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て form not only can connect two actions but many more if they occur consecutively. It's likely to be understood as listing actions, for example:

毎日６時半に起きて、シャワーを浴びて、朝ご飯を食べて、学校にいきます。
Every morning I wake up at 6:30 then take a shower, next I have breakfast, and after that I go to school.

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