So I was looking at example sentences and I saw this sentence:
うちの犬は、雪を見ると走り回る。
I am not sure what と here is used for or when this usage of と is taught.
I know と can be used as a quotation, but this seems to be joining 2 verbs similar to what the て form does. So why not use the て form here?
Is someone able to explain the usage of と here, or have links to a place to learn this? What N-level is this taught? If its an N5-N4 grammar point I guess I missed a lesson hahaha.
I checked online already with no luck, and while usually Tofugu can help it was a bust this time.
You can also think of it as an extension of the “and” meaning: my dog sees snow and (as a consequence) he runs around. I find it helpful to think of it this way because it highlights that と is a “strong” hypothetical: A と B highlights that B will always occur when A.
Not to question WaniKani, but I’m not sure I would have written this sentence with と. Conditional と indicates that the outcome is uncontrollable and inevitable - 角を右に曲がると駅が見える, if you turn right at the corner, you can see the station (it is unavoidable). In this instance, the dog always chooses to run around when he sees snow, yes, but he still chooses it. I’d have probably gone with ～たら instead.
My Japanese teacher explained that 〜と can also indicate a habitual/natural response to an action, like in this case (the dog repeatedly displays the behaviour of running around after seeing snow). In this case, using 〜たら wouldn’t be grammatically incorrect but maybe doesn’t carry the same nuance of it being a habit or a natural response. Or maybe I’m misremembering as per usual…