And

Use

When we join two or more grammatically similar expressions, we usually put and before the last.

bread and cheese

We drank, talked and danced.

I wrote the letters, Peter addressed them, George bought the stamps and Alice posted them.

And is sometimes left out in a very literary or poetic style, but this is unusual.

My dreams are full of darkness, despair, death

Fixed expressions

Some common expressions with and have a fixed order which cannot be changed. The shortest expression often comes first.

bread and butter (not butter and bread)

hands and knees (not knees and hands)

young and pretty thunder and lightning

black and white cup and saucer

knife and fork

Adjectives before a noun

We do not usually use and with adjectives (or other modifiers) before a noun.

Thanks for your nice long letter, (not ... nice and long letter.)

a tall, dark, handsome cowboy cheap wooden garden furniture However, and is used in certain cases, for example when the modifiers refer to different parts of the same thing.

red and yellow socks a metal and glass table We also use and when we say that something belongs to two or more different classes.

It's a social and political problem. She's a musical and artistic genius. And is common, too, when we are 'piling up' favourable or unfavourable descriptions.

You're a good and generous person.

She's an intelligent and strong-minded woman.

It's an ill-planned, expensive and wasteful project.

nice and

In an informal style, the expression nice and is often used before another adjective or an adverb. It means something like 'pleasantly' or 'suitably'.

It's nice and warm in front of the fire. (- pleasantly warm)

The work was nice and easy.

Now just put your gun down nice and slow.

Meanings

When two clauses are joined by and, there are many possible relationships between them - for example time, cause and effect, contrast, condition. / lay down and went straight to sleep, (time) She won the prize and astonished them all. (cause and effect) She's a bank manager and I'm just a road-sweeper, (contrast) Do that again and I'll hit you. (condition: - If you do that again...)

And after try, wait, go, etc

1 try/be sure/wait and...

We often use try and... instead of try/be sure to... This is informal.

Try and eat something - you'll feel better if you do.

I'll try and phone you tomorrow morning.

Be sure and ask Uncle Joe about his garden. We only use this structure with the simple base forms try/be sure. It is not possible with tries, tried, trying or am/are/is/was/were sure. Compare:

Try and eat something.

I tried to eat something, (not / tried and ate something.) Note also the common expression Wait and see.

'What's for lunch?' 'Wait and see.'

2 come/go/etc and...

Come and..., go and..., run and..., hurry up and..., stay and... are often used informally with similar meanings to infinitive structures.

Come and have a drink.

Stay and have dinner.

Hurry up and open the door. With these verbs, the structure is not only used with the base form.

He often comes and spends the evening with us.

She stayed and played with the children.

She thought of going and getting him.

3 American English

In informal American English, and is sometimes dropped after the base forms go and come.

Let's go see if Anne's home.
Go jump in the river.

Come sit on my lap.