The words and and or are conjunctions, and they have a few different forms in Spanish.

And is normally translated as y:

When "and" precedes a word that begins with the sound "i," the Spanish translation is e instead of y, in order to avoid having two "i" sounds in a row. This includes words that begin with i and hi, but not words that begin with hie.

 
Or is normally translated as o:

When "or" precedes a word that begins with the sound "o," the Spanish translation is u instead of o, in order to avoid having two "o" sounds in a row. This includes words that begin with o and ho.

When o is used with numerals, it becomes ó, to avoid confusion with the number 0.

 
Note for French speakers: I find it interesting that the alternate forms e and u sound like the French conjunctions et and ou.

Coordinating Conjunctions

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