I believe this is one of the last lessons in Tae Kim's guide before moving on to verbs, so I'm excited! This is also a simpler one, which is odd to me because I was holding off on it due to its perceived difficulty. But after watching the video and practicing a bit, it's pretty easy to use the right form of "and/or" when constructing sentences in Japanese.
If I want to give a complete list, I can just use the particle と. For example:
猫と犬は好きです。
I like cats and dogs.
林檎とチキンが欲しいください。
I want apples and chicken, please.
If I want to give an incomplete list, I can use the particles や or とか depending on formality.
野菜やご飯が好きです。
I like things like vegetables and rice.
ゲームとか映画が好きだよ。
I like stuff like games and movies.
ハイキングとかが好きだね。
You like hiking and stuff, huh?
You can add とか after listing a single item to get the casual "and stuff" effect, which we do in English all the time.
Finally, there's か used to mean "or" when listing nouns.
枕か毛布が欲しいですください。
I want a pillow or a blanket, please.
知らない。手か足だよ。
I don't know. It's a hand or a foot.
Fun stuff! I'm really glad I did this lesson, because I can easily incorporate it into sentence practices now. I have one more section to learn for the の particle, then lots of review of these grammatical concepts, and it'll be time for verbs! I can finally do things!
Credit goes to Tae Kim's lesson seen here.
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