て details
write + (and…)
kaite
and; and then; by doing — joins one clause to the next
meaning: write and
毎朝六時に起きて、犬の散歩に行きます。
maiasa rokuji ni okite, inu no sanpo ni ikimasu.
Every morning I get up and take the dog for a walk. neutral
昨日は駅から歩いて帰ったよ。
kinou wa eki kara aruite kaetta yo.
I walked home from the station yesterday. casual
- て-form
- i-adjective stem
- na-adjective
- noun
Examples
and then — successive actions in the order they happened, tense carried by the final clause alone
毎朝六時に起きて、犬の散歩に行きます。
maiasa rokuji ni okite, inu no sanpo ni ikimasu.
Every morning I get up and take the dog for a walk. neutral
昨日は友達に会って、映画見て、カラオケ行ったよ。
kinou wa tomodachi ni atte, eiga mite, karaoke itta yo.
Yesterday I met a friend, saw a movie, and went to karaoke. casual
用紙にご記入いただいて、係の者にお渡しください。
youshi ni go kinyuu itadaite, kakari no mono ni o watashi kudasai.
Please fill in the form and hand it to a member of staff. formal
and — links states or descriptions of one thing, the adjective or noun taking the て-form of its own class
この部屋は広くて、家賃も安いです。
kono heya wa hirokute, yachin mo yasui desu.
This room is spacious and the rent is cheap too. neutral
うちの犬、小さくて、すごく人懐っこいんだ。
uchi no inu, chiisakute, sugoku hitonatsukkoi n da.
Our dog is small and super friendly. casual
この辺、静かできれいだよ。
kono hen, shizuka de kirei da yo.
It's quiet and clean around here. casual
姉は看護師で、大阪に住んでいます。
ane wa kangoshi de, oosaka ni sunde imasu.
My older sister is a nurse and lives in Osaka. neutral
by doing — the て clause names the means or manner of the action that follows
昨日は駅から歩いて帰ったよ。
kinou wa eki kara aruite kaetta yo.
I walked home from the station yesterday. casual
分からない言葉は、辞書を使って調べます。
wakaranai kotoba wa, jisho o tsukatte shirabemasu.
I use a dictionary to look up words I don't know. neutral
Formation
{V-te}attaches to て-form{I-stem}くてattaches to i-adjective stem{NA-stem}でattaches to na-adjective{N}でattaches to noun
Notes
(姉は看護師で…), not the で of place or means. A verb chain
runs one way in time — swap the clauses and it stops making sense — while
the adjective and noun rows only list, in any order.
Related patterns
Similar
Both stack clauses, but て only orders them and leaves the connection for the listener to infer, while し labels each clause a reason and advertises that more are unsaid — 安くて近い describes a shop, 安いし近いし argues for going to it.
Both put one event before another, but bare て leaves the gap unmeasured and tolerates a loose list of three or four actions, while てから welds exactly two and makes the first the precondition of the second — a chain of four てから clauses is unnatural where four て clauses are ordinary.
て fixes the order of the actions and presents the list as complete; たり〜たり samples an unordered, open list — 食べて寝た narrates a sequence, 食べたり寝たりした characterises the day.
The て-form is a MORPHEME welded onto the verb — it chains clauses inside one sentence and leaves tense to the final verb, so it can never open a sentence; そして is a free word standing before the clause, which is why it starts a new sentence where て only extends one.
Lookalikes
The identical surface splits on what follows it — a further willed action reads as sequence (会って話した), while an emotion, an evaluation or an uncontrollable result reads as cause (会えて嬉しい); it is the second clause that decides, which is why learners take causal て for plain listing.
病気で splits two ways and only the continuation tells you which — the case で hands its noun to a verb as venue, tool or cause (病気で休んだ), the copular で is だ's て-form predicating it of the subject (彼は病気で、来られません), and only that second one expands back to である.