Japanese word for "and" when using several nouns to describe someone?
 

Hello!

I have been studying japanese for a while now, but I realize that I don't know the word for "and", that you use when you are trying to connect nouns that describe the same thing/person. Do I still use "to"? How do you for example "I'm a student and a teacher"? Do you say "Watashi wa gakusei to sensei desu"?

Thank you!

If you are linking nouns, you always use と for a complete list, no matter the function of the nouns in the sentence.

Is it not で in this case?
Because it is not simply just a list of nouns, it is describing what the person is.
(Maybe I made that up, but I thought it was で in this case)

For example from alc:
“is a and”の検索結果（6380 件）：英辞郎 on the Web：スペースアルク

Ben Gates is a historian and adventurer.
ベン・ゲイツは歴史学者で冒険家です。

Those で are て form of だ(です/である).

学生で、先生です。
がくせいで、せんせいです。

I think thats what you meant. But it sounds a bit strange. I would use と.
And you can't use で for example for :

猫と犬がいる。
ねこといぬがいる。

Because you want to say that there are(exist) cats and dogs, not it is a cat and a dog.

I know.
This is one of the reasons I brought it up.

Again, another reason I brought it up, and why I said "In this case".
Of course we can't use で in your example, because it is a fundamentally different sentence.
But we want to describe what the person is (Going back to the で being a て form of だ reason.)

For these reasons I also provided the example from ALC.
Of course I could be wrong, but I felt it important to bring up.

Incorrect. I'm surprised you said this.
____________

Correct.

I probably didn't state it artfully. I think in my original draft of that post, I'd said something about も, but I guess I deleted it.

Is that what made what I said wrong?

I'd originally written something using examples of
アとビは
アとビを
アとビに
アとビが
etc.

but then deleted it.

In any case, I'd be interested to know what would have been a better answer!

To say something like "Ms. Smith is a pilot, a wife and a mother of two.", which is clearly what the OP is asking about, you don't use と even once.

That would be:
「スミスさんはパイロットであり、妻であり、ふたりのこどもの母親でもある。」　or

「スミスさんはパイロットで、妻で、ふたりのこどもの母親でもある。」

Of course Sashimister and yuriyuri are correct. I don't know what I was thinking. Even when I spoke aloud to myself, what they said came out.

Looks like I went off on a wild tangent. (Again!)

Don't beat yourself up, Kyle.

Ok, so I'll use で when connecting nouns that describe someone, but what does であり mean? Is it で + the stem of あります? What is the difference? Is there a formal difference?

Thank you so much! :pinkbow:

あり is the continuative form of ある, which is why it isn't used the third (the last) time.

(And don't forget to use the も at the end.)

The difference between the two sentences is the degree of formality. The first sentence sounds more formal but not by all that much to the native ear.

Ok, so I should say 学生で、先生もです? Got it.

So ありis kind of like when you use the stem form of verbs (instead of the te-form) to link sentences, but you use ありbecause だ is already in the te-form?

Again, thank you for your help! ^_^

Nope. You cannot say もです.　　Please read each letter in my sentences carefully.

You can choose between でもある and でもあります.

You seem a bit confused here.

I stated last time that あり was the continuative form of ある. The term "continuative form" is the official name for the "te-form". (Believe it or not, the term "te-form" is NEVER used in Japan, which is why I don't like using it in my explanations.) So, あり is already in the "te-form" even though you see no て in it, and so is で.

This is the reason that you should construct these sentences as:
(Again, read each and every letter carefully or you will learn nothing in this post. If I were you, I would read these aloud.)
であり　+　であり　+　でもある or
で　+　で　+　でもある

でもある can be replaced by でもあります.