The most common conjunctions in Spanish are y (and) and o (or). They behave almost exactly like their English counterparts, but each has an alternate form (e and u) that appears before certain sounds to avoid awkward pronunciation.
Y: the default word for "and"
Use y to join words, phrases, or clauses of equal value. It is pronounced like the English letter ee.
Quiero café y pan.
I want coffee and bread.
Y can also link full sentences:
Llegué a casa y me acosté de inmediato.
I got home and went to bed immediately.
E: the replacement before i- and hi-
When the next word begins with the i sound (written i- or hi-), y becomes e. This avoids two identical vowel sounds crashing into each other.
Padres e hijos asistieron a la ceremonia.
Parents and children attended the ceremony.
Es una persona inteligente e interesante.
She is an intelligent and interesting person.
Note the exceptions:
- y stays when the following word starts with hie- (a diphthong), because the sound is ye, not ee: agua y hielo (water and ice).
- y also stays at the start of a question: ¿Y Inés? (And Inés?), where the conjunction functions more like what about.
O: the default word for "or"
O means or and works just like English.
¿Prefieres té o café?
Do you prefer tea or coffee?
U: the replacement before o- and ho-
When the next word begins with the o sound (o- or ho-), o becomes u.
Hay siete u ocho personas esperando.
There are seven or eight people waiting.
¿Es mujer u hombre?
Is it a woman or a man?
Writing "and/or" in numbers
You may have seen an older rule that placed an accent on ó when it appeared between numerals (7 ó 8). The Real Academia Española dropped this rule, so today you simply write 7 o 8. In Latin America, this modern usage is universal in print and online.
Y and o as more than joiners
Both conjunctions sometimes carry extra meanings beyond simple joining. Y at the beginning of a question often means and what about? or so?:
¿Y tú? ¿Cómo estás?
And you? How are you doing?
¿Y si salimos a caminar?
What if we go for a walk?
O can introduce a clarification or a rephrasing, roughly or rather:
Vive en la capital, o sea, en la Ciudad de México.
He lives in the capital, that is, in Mexico City.
The fixed phrase o sea (that is, I mean) is one of the most frequent fillers in Latin American speech.
Combining y and o in longer lists
In a list of three or more items, Spanish normally places the conjunction only before the last element, without an Oxford comma:
Compré manzanas, peras y uvas.
I bought apples, pears, and grapes.
Common mistakes
❌ Padres y hijos.
Wrong: y before a word starting with the i- sound must change to e.
✅ Padres e hijos.
Correct: e replaces y before words starting with i- or hi-.
❌ ¿Quieres siete o ocho?
Wrong: o before a word starting with o- must change to u.
✅ ¿Quieres siete u ocho?
Correct: u replaces o before words starting with o- or ho-.
❌ Compré manzanas, peras, y uvas.
Wrong: Spanish does not use the Oxford comma before y.
✅ Compré manzanas, peras y uvas.
Correct: no comma before y in a standard list.
For related contrast conjunctions, see Pero and Sino. For negative pairings like neither...nor, see Ni...Ni (Neither...Nor).
Related Topics
- Pero and SinoA2 — How to express 'but' in Spanish with pero for contrast and sino for correction after a negative.
- Ni...Ni (Neither...Nor)A2 — How to use ni and the paired ni...ni construction to negate two or more elements at once.