Important ! I strongly recommend that you review the following course : the particle の.
In this lesson, we will see the particle と. This is the enumeration particle. Its use is very simple because it is almost identical to the « and » in English.
This particle is placed between two nouns. It is not used to link verbs or adjectives. There are various uses of the particle と but for now, we’ll only learn the enumeration.
Now it is said, let’s see some examples :
Mitsuko and Yotsuba. → 三子と四葉。
Matsuki and Miho. → 松木と美帆。
Matsuoka and Kuroda. → 松岡と黒田。
Kurokawa and Matsui. → 黒川と松井。
Wakatsuki and Yumeko. → 若月と夢子。
If I want to say :
The fox and the bear. / A fox and a bear. → 狐と熊。
You can see that we could translate this sentence as « the fox and the bear » or « a fox and a bear ».
Remember that in Japanese the definite articles (the, a) do not exist.
Four more examples for the road :
Water and glass. → 水とグラス。
The accordion and the pan flute. / An accordion and a pan flute. → アコーディオンとパンパイプ。
The trumpet and the piano. / A trumpet and a piano. → トランペットとピアノ。
Rock and jazz. → ロックとジャズ。
The sea and the mountain. → 海と山。
Now if I want to list more than two elements like in the following sentence :
Luciano, Mario, Kaori, Peter, Mitsuko, Miho, Mikami, Bryan, Boyan, Sebastián, Lucy, Kadokura, Betty, Tsukioka, Peter and Tagami.
In English, to make an enumeration, we put a comma and the « and » comes at the end to enumerate the last element. In Japanese, we have to put the particle と between each name :
ルチアーノとマリオと香織とピーターと三子と美帆と三上とブライアンとボヤンとセバスチャンとルーシーと門倉とベティと月岡と田上。
ルチアーノとマリオとかおりとピーターとみつことみほとみかみとブライアンとボヤンとセバスチャンとルーシーとかどくらとベティとつきおかとたがみ。
Luciano, Mario, Kaori, Peter, Mitsuko, Miho, Mikami, Bryan, Boyan, Sebastian, Lucy, Kadokura, Betty, Tsukioka and Tagami.
Now that you have understood this correctly, we can make sentences. If I want to say :
マリオと香織とピーターだ。
マリオとかおりとピーターだ。
Són Mario, Kaori and Peter.
マリオの靴下とピーターの帽子だ。
マリオのくつしたとピーターのぼうしだ。
These are Mario’s socks and Peter’s hat.
香織のベルトとルチアーノのパンツだ。
かおりのベルトとルチアーノのパンツだ。
It is Kaori’s belt and Luciano’s boxer shorts.
三上のパンティーとブラジャーだ。
みかみのパンティーとブラジャーだ。
These are Mikami’s pantie and bra.
三子のオカリナとブライアンのギターだ。
みつこのオカリナとブライアンのギターだ。
These are Mitsuko’s ocarina and Bryan’s guitar.
美帆のワイシャツとズボンと靴下だ。
みほのワイシャツとズボンとくつしただ。
These are Miho’s shirt, pants and socks.
I would like to draw your attention to the last sentence.
美帆のワイシャツとズボンと靴下だ。
みほのワイシャツとズボンとくつしただ。
These are Miho’s shirt, pants and socks.
In English, it should be noted that we don’t have the slightest ambiguity. The sentence is clear. The shirt, pants and socks all belong to Miho.
Even in Japanese, this ambiguity is not present. If we look closely at the word order, this is clear that all the listed objects belong to Miho.
In others Western languages, you have to be aware of the ambiguity you can have when translating this kind of sentence. So, to put it simply, you English-speakers are the luckiest because the way you express possession in a sentence is very similar to Japanese language.
In the sentences below, I have two possessors. Observe the construction :
ルチアーノのラジオとヘッドフォンとブライアンのスニーカーだ。
ルチアーノのラジオとヘッドフォンとブライアンのスニーカーだ。
It’s Luciano’s radio and headphones and Bryan’s sneakers.
門倉の絵筆と画架とボヤンのタオルだ。
かどくらのえふでとがかとボヤンのタオルだ。
It’s Kadokura’s easel and brushes and Boyan’s towel.
セバスチャンとルーシーの楽譜と楽器だ。
セバスチャンとルーシーのがふくとがっきだ。
These are the scores and musical instruments of Sebastian and Lucy.
マリオのギターとピアノとベティのトランペットだ。
These are Mario’s guitar and piano and Betty’s trumpet.
門倉と香織のスリッパだ。
かどくらとかおりのスリッパだ。
These are the slippers of Kadokura and Kaori.
月岡とマリオのピアノとオカリナだ。
つきおかとたがみのティーボックスとカップだ。
This is Tsukioka’s and Mario’s piano and ocarina.
Everything fine ? Still following after all these examples ? As you can see, the sentence possibilities available to us with just two particles are enormous. Now, if you have understood this first use of the particle と, let’s move on to the next one.
If we put the particle と after a noun / proper name, it translates to « with ». Immediately an example :
With Yotsuba. → 四葉と。
With Miho. → 美帆と。
With Sebastian. → セバスチャンと。
Good. Now another slightly more complex example :
With Sebastià, Mario i Lucy. → セバスチャンとマリオとルーシーと。
You can see that we are using the particle と which translates as « and », and the particle と which translates as « with ».
Please note : this use of the particle と is only possible with living things. If I want to say « I eat with my spoon. », the spoon is the means with which I eat, this is not a person or an animal with which I eat. In this case, we will use another particle that we will see later.
Since these are two different meanings, we will use two different particles.
The particle と has other uses as well, including conveying direct speech in a sentence... and whatnot.
We will stop there for this lesson. I cannot give you more examples for this new use of the particle because we will need presence or action verbs. We cannot use it with だ, the verb « to be » of description. However, don’t worry, we’ll see more verbs, particles, and vocabulary in future lessons.
As a bonus, here is your first palindrome in Japanese !
鶏と小鳥と鰐。
にわとりとことりわに。
The hen and the baby bird and the crocodile.
As a reminder, the palindrome is a figure of speech designating a text or a word whose letter order remains the same whether it is read from left to right or from right to left.
This second lesson on a new Japanese particle comes to an end. Once again, I hope I explained everything to you correctly and everything is crystal clear. It is important that you fully understand all of the uses we can make of each particle, which is why I give many examples with detailed explanations.
Now I’m giving you your exercises, theme and version, and of course these phrases require the use of the particle と and most the use of the particle の.
We still have a lot of particles to see so take your time to read this course again and also the course on the particle の at the same time.
With that, thank you for reading this course to the end, keep working well, stay very regular in your work and you’ll make progress.
Have a good day everyone and do your homework properly.
The enumeration particle