Can you help me with this Spanish grammar rule?

I’m confused. Where do you want to put the u? O means or, is that what you are talking about? My spanish is good, but not perfect. I’ll also send this to a some Spanish speakers for you.

I’m confused too – “y” in your example is Spanish for “and” – “e” would mean nothing that I can determine.

Hi, I’m an Argentinian, so, Spanish native speaker at your service, sir :)

It’s pretty simple.
Just use “e” when the word next to the “y” starts with a “i” or “y”.
Example: “El caminaba y ignoraba el asunto” it’s not correct, that should be “El caminaba e ignoraba el asunto”.

The same goes for “o” and “u”. Use “u” when the next word starts with an “o”.
Example: “Quiero plata o oro” it’s not correct, that should be “Quiero plata u oro”

But remember. “Y” and “o” should always be your first choices! Only use “e” or “u” in the cases mentioned above.

This is like this to avoid Cacophonys

I beg your pardon, I wrote something incorrect on the previous answer.

I said you should use “e” when the next word started with an “i” or “y”.
Though true, be careful with the “y”, as you only have to use “e” when it is used as an “i”.

Examples:
“Y ya fue”—> Correct! “Y” is not used as “i”.
“Juan y Ysmael”—> Not correct! Use “e” here, as “y” is pronounced as “i”.

Don’t worry so much though. There are little word were you’ll find “y” pronounced as an “i” :).

PS: I double posted so you could get the notification on my new response. I’m really sorry if I caused any inconvenience for the previous incomplete answer!

@Pk_JoA ¡Bienvenido! Welcome to fluther.

What @Pk_JoA said. Think of it as “a” vs. “an” in English. “A apple” sounds bad, as does “o oro.”

@Pk_JoA and @sliceswiththings gave you great examples. You cannot use “y” if the following word begins with “i” because they sound the same and therefore does not sound correct. Same thing with the “o” and “u”, “o otros” doesn’t sound right. It’s the same as if you said “A art collection” or ” A answer”, these clearly don’t sound right because you need to have something to separate the “a” and “a”. It’s basically the same concept in Spanish.

The change is only done in the cases above to ease pronunciation. @sliceswiththings’ example of the English “an” is the best comparison, I think. It’s done to avoid the stuttering sound that can occur when a vowel sound is repeated.

Italian does something similar – “e” (and) changes to “ed” before a word beginning with a vowel.

Que quiere decir etignotasanimum “e” incomprendible? Did not know about the “u” in plata u oro. Very informative. Thank you my fluthering friends! I’m gonna run right out and use it :)

@gene116 Incomprendible means something that can’t be understood. “Comprendible” is “understandable” and that “in” at front makes it the antonym :)

—@Pk_JoA I think @gene116 was providing an example (“e incomprendible”) so if it weren’t for the “in” it wouldn’t follow this rule.

Correctomundo!

@gene116 @sliceswiththings Oh, ok, sorry :)

You must use “e” if the next word starts with “i”, v.gr. ”él camina e incendia”, even if the next word has an “h” before “i”, v.gr. ”él caminó e hizo”. But, you must use “y” if the next word starts with “hie”, v. gr. “el cobre y el hierro”.
And you must use “u” if the next word starts with “o”, v.gr. “cobre u oro”.
This rule appears as a solution for a cacophonical problem!

It depends on the sound! as others have explained before me, so I won’t bother going into the details…