Sometimes the smallest things cause the most trouble. This not only holds for the odd typo in an email address or a mosquito in your bedroom, but also for translations of apparently simple little words. Such as ¡°and.¡±
As a look at the long list of definitions in any proper dictionary will show, ¡°and¡± can handle a large number of quite disparate functions. Obviously, the ¡°and¡± in ¡°ham and eggs¡± does something entirely different from the one in ¡°and they lived happily ever after.¡± We just don¡¯t give too much thought about it in English, because it¡¯s all done with one and the same word.
Japanese, by contrast, is a little more particular about its ¡°ands¡± and that¡¯s where the trouble starts. Likely the first word for ¡°and¡± new learners of Japanese will get to know is ¤È (to). And in fact, it goes quite some way, provided you use it only with nouns, such as in ¹ûÎï¤ÈÒ°²Ë (kudamono to yasai, fruits and vegetables) or ¤ª¤Ð¤¢¤Á¤ã¤ó¤È¤ª¤¸¤¤¤Á¤ã¤ó (ob¨¡chan to ojiichan, grandma and granpa).
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.