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Certain dictionary definitions of 'and' in lower-case letters are as a conjunction. In capital letters 'AND' is a noun as a Boolean operator. Below is an example of a request to a sign creator for a sign of symbols for Fish & Chips.

Please give me symbols for: fish, 'fish' and and, '&' and chips, 'chips'.

In that example the word 'and' can be said to appear four times in a row. That first use of 'and' in the example sentence was as a conjunction why was it not a conjunction for the other three uses of the word 'and'? Other users commented about 'and' as something other than a conjunction. What is 'and' other than a conjunction?

Matthew London
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3 Answers3

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Yes, it is not a conjunction when it becomes a noun (or other) in usage or function.

Normally...

And

is a conjunction, except for when it is being quoted as a word.

-Cambridge

As @Mitch mentions in a comment,

See Use-mention distinction. In short, 'and' is a conjunction, but " 'and' " is word that means a conjunction, which may seem like caviling but is an extremely important distinction. You can put a log into a wood chipper, but you can't put the word 'log' into a word chipper.

Edwin Ashworth said:

"The 'word-used-as-a-word' is usually classed as a noun

Edit

I have been thinking on Mitch's comments.

I have heard "and" used as a demand for information: possibly it could function as an interjection.

Ex.

"Did you pick up your sister at the bus station?" "I went there..." "And??" She wasn't there."

Final Notes:

Some folks here have noted in the past that although dictionaries list Parts of Speech, they don't do a particularly good job of it.

Related: What is the difference between a part of speech and a syntactic function / grammatical relation?.

Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_
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  • I don't usually reply formally to un-researched questions to which I have already VTCed... – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ May 01 '21 at 18:59
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    The reason answers were confined to comments is to avoid giving a veneer of respectability to an under-researched, badly stated and probably when undeciphered duplicate question. – Edwin Ashworth May 01 '21 at 19:00
  • @EdwinAshworth Should I delete? I was getting really tired of being pinged when I thought our comments should suffice. This guy is just not getting it... – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ May 01 '21 at 19:02
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    I'd delete when OP has had chance to read this. They should read the other threads, and post problems they have remaining on ELL. – Edwin Ashworth May 01 '21 at 19:08
  • Although I'd agree this question isn't useful, I'm perplexed that the original question has been closed as a duplicate of what seems to me to be an entirely different question. Although the use-mention distinction is very relevant to the question about multiple "and"s in a row, the questions are by no means the same thing! – tea-and-cake May 01 '21 at 19:38
  • @tea-and-cake The question has not been closed as a dupe; however, it is still on the VTC queue for "lack of research"... – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ May 02 '21 at 19:41
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The Oxford English Dictionary lists "and" as conjunction, adverb, and noun.

The adverb is labeled "obsolete".

Ye shall see and what somewhat I have in my sacke.

The noun could be an instance of the word "and"

ifs, ands or buts

Also the noun "and" may mean the boolean operation AND.

GEdgar
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    I was going to comment. However, I'm thinking I should but out. – Hot Licks May 02 '21 at 20:12
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    In the sense of boolean operation it can also be used as a verb: in computer science you might talk about how you need to "and two variables together", although this is very specialised and technical. – Stuart F May 03 '21 at 18:42
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Yes, it can be a noun, like if I were to say:

"And can be a noun— no ifs, ands, or buts!"

"No ifs, ands, or buts" is a common expression. With that in mind, it's obvious the word "and" can be a noun because the word "and" has been pluralized. Conjunctions don't have a plural case. Nouns do. "And" being the subject of "can" above — so doubly proving its nounness — is the icing on the cake.

Incidentally, any dictionary will tell you it can be a noun. Scrabble dictionaries even do since pluralizing "and" by adding an S in order to build in a perpendicular direction and get the points for "ands" in addition to the new word being formed is a strategic move.

Benjamin Harman
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