Difference between と・や and も for lists？


I know that you use と for complete lists, and や for incomplete ones, but when
would you use xもyも instead of xとy or xやy? Doesn't も usually replace は or が?
Why is も used for lists at all?




Short answer:

  * と = and (giving an exhaustive list where you're enumerating everything)
  * も = also (could be creating a new list or adding to an existing list)
  * や = things like...and... (clearly only giving samples from the list)

More detailed answer:

I'll start by stealing one of my examples from [whats the difference between し
and と?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/14954/whats-the-
difference-between-%E3%81%97-and-%E3%81%A8)

> [八百屋]{やおや}で[林檎]{りんご}とニンジンとピーマンと[買]{か}うつもり。

This example clearly states that I'm buying 3 things: apples, carrots, and
peppers. If we change と to や, however, we get:

> [八百屋]{やおや}で[林檎]{りんご}やニンジンやピーマンを[買]{か}うつもり。

Here we're probably buying more things, but the only ones we decide to list
for the listener are the above-mentioned apples, carrots, and peppers. The
full list may very well be too exhaustive to list everything out in
conversation.

As for も, It's not used so much for _creating_ lists as for expanding them.
For example, it wouldn't be inappropriate to follow either of the above with:

> 米【こめ】も買わなきゃ。

...indicating that I need to buy rice as well. I could even list a couple of
items in this case:

> あぁ、米【こめ】もニンニクも買わなきゃダメ！ "Ach, it's going to be real bad if I don't buy rice
> and garlic, too!"

Now that said, so far we've dealt with lists of objects. When it comes to
lists of people, my observations are a little bit different:

  * I've never seen や used in listing people (although I imagine in this case it'd be similar to adding 〜達【たち】 to their name—it indicates a group of people associated with the named person
  * It's not uncommon to initially create a list of people using も. For example:

> [俺]{おれ}は _[武]{たけし}も[夏美]{なつみ}も_ 一緒【いっしょ】に[東京]{とうきょう}へ[行]{い}った。 "I went to
> Tokyo _with Takeshi and Natsumi_."

is a perfectly acceptable construction. It's just like substituting "with" for
"and" in such a list in English, and presents a slightly softer nuance.




Short answer:

  * と = and (giving an exhaustive list where you're enumerating everything)
  * も = also (could be creating a new list or adding to an existing list)
  * や = things like...and... (clearly only giving samples from the list)

More detailed answer:

I'll start by stealing one of my examples from [whats the difference between し
and と?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/14954/whats-the-
difference-between-%E3%81%97-and-%E3%81%A8)

> [八百屋]{やおや}で[林檎]{りんご}とニンジンとピーマンと[買]{か}うつもり。

This example clearly states that I'm buying 3 things: apples, carrots, and
peppers. If we change と to や, however, we get:

> [八百屋]{やおや}で[林檎]{りんご}やニンジンやピーマンを[買]{か}うつもり。

Here we're probably buying more things, but the only ones we decide to list
for the listener are the above-mentioned apples, carrots, and peppers. The
full list may very well be too exhaustive to list everything out in
conversation.

As for も, It's not used so much for _creating_ lists as for expanding them.
For example, it wouldn't be inappropriate to follow either of the above with:

> 米【こめ】も買わなきゃ。

...indicating that I need to buy rice as well. I could even list a couple of
items in this case:

> あぁ、米【こめ】もニンニクも買わなきゃダメ！ "Ach, it's going to be real bad if I don't buy rice
> and garlic, too!"

Now that said, so far we've dealt with lists of objects. When it comes to
lists of people, my observations are a little bit different:

  * I've never seen や used in listing people (although I imagine in this case it'd be similar to adding 〜達【たち】 to their name—it indicates a group of people associated with the named person
  * It's not uncommon to initially create a list of people using も. For example:

> [俺]{おれ}は _[武]{たけし}も[夏美]{なつみ}も_ 一緒【いっしょ】に[東京]{とうきょう}へ[行]{い}った。 "I went to
> Tokyo _with Takeshi and Natsumi_."

is a perfectly acceptable construction. It's just like substituting "with" for
"and" in such a list in English, and presents a slightly softer nuance.

