Use of と in this sentence: 電車に乗るとすぐメールを熱心に打っている


I'm confused about how と is used in this sentence (乗るとすぐメールを・・・). What purpose
does it serve?

> 電車の中では携帯で話すことはできませんが、みんな電車に乗る **と** すぐメールを熱心に打っているのにびっくりしました。




English speaking learners of Japanese are usually first exposed to `と` as
being _something like_ "and" (though it's not _technically_ "and"), as in
`りんごとオレンジとバナナ`. However, that's just one use, and you can see some more
explanation of `と` and it's implications of _consequence_ at [the top of this
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/1784/119).

`乗るとすぐメールを・・・` means roughly something like, " **when** they get on the
train...". Given the context of the longer sentence, it's saying, " **when**
they get on the train, they soon start mailing with their phone..."

It might be tempting to translate your sentence as "they get on the train
**and then** they soon mail," because that makes a certain sense in connecting
the kind of `と` in `りんごとオレンジとバナナ` with the kind of `と` in your sentence. Which
I say because that was a mistake I was making. However, "and then" would be
`そして`. In this case, this `と` in your sentence isn't a variation on the `と`
used to list things. It's just "when", as in " **when** _X_ happens, then _Y_
".

Hope that helps.




English speaking learners of Japanese are usually first exposed to `と` as
being _something like_ "and" (though it's not _technically_ "and"), as in
`りんごとオレンジとバナナ`. However, that's just one use, and you can see some more
explanation of `と` and it's implications of _consequence_ at [the top of this
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/1784/119).

`乗るとすぐメールを・・・` means roughly something like, " **when** they get on the
train...". Given the context of the longer sentence, it's saying, " **when**
they get on the train, they soon start mailing with their phone..."

It might be tempting to translate your sentence as "they get on the train
**and then** they soon mail," because that makes a certain sense in connecting
the kind of `と` in `りんごとオレンジとバナナ` with the kind of `と` in your sentence. Which
I say because that was a mistake I was making. However, "and then" would be
`そして`. In this case, this `と` in your sentence isn't a variation on the `と`
used to list things. It's just "when", as in " **when** _X_ happens, then _Y_
".

Hope that helps.

