Hi! I have finished all the N5 lessons and started reviewing them.
However, I don’t really understand when to use と and when to use で (lesson 10), when in the English translation, both mean “and”.
It’s not clear for me what the difference is between both particles, even after reading the explanation again.
Can you give me tips? Thank you!
箱にはリンゴとバナナがある - There is a banana(s) and an apple(s) in the box.
You use と here for “and” as you are almost like binding the two entities together, saying this and this and nothing else. You are not describing qualities of the inside of the box, you are just saying the conjoined two nouns exist in it.
彼は大学生でいいやつだよ - He’s a college student and a good guy.
You are stating his qualities, these are states and therefore need the copula after them each (The で you are describing is not the particle but the て form of the copula だ) You are assigning attributes/states to him.
Think of it like this, what is he? You could separate them and say
彼は大学生だ and 彼はいいやつだ but instead you are choosing to say both within one sentence so you make the だ into で
But for the fruit example, we didn’t use だ, we used がある, this shows we aren’t qualifying two different states of being, we are instead just conjoining two nouns together to describe them both as being what exists in the box.
Use と → to connect nouns in a list (A and B).
Use で → to connect clauses that describe different qualities or states of the same subject.
It is hard to grasp as an English learner as we use “and” for both, but if you’re able to parse out the difference you can begin to see that actually we can break down these usages of “and” into binding two nouns together vs attributing two different states of being.
There is probably someone who can explain this better, but this is generally how I look at it.
That was such a good, succinct explanation. You’d be a great japanese teacher 
