There are three conjunctions you can use in Arabic (among others)–wa (and), thumma (then), and fa (which is difficult to translate, think of it as “and”). They are all used to group multiple items. What are the differences between these three?
Wa indicates grouping, but doesn’t specify order or timing. For example: Ahmed and Ghufran and Yusuf travelled to the masjid. It doesn’t indicate what order they arrived in, or anything about how long the people who came first waited for the people who came after then. It just groups them together.
Thumma indicates order, but doesn’t specify the timing. For example: Ahmed, then Ghufran, then Yusuf travelled to the masjid. While this tells you the order–Ahmed was first, then Ghufran was second, then Yusuf was third–it doesn’t tell you anything about the time between them.
Fa indicates the order (like thumma), but also shows that the second event happened immediately after the first. For example: Ahmed and then immediately Yusuf and then immediately Yusuf travelled to the masjid. shows that Ahmed came first, then Ghufran came next (on the heels of Ahmed), then Yusuf came right behind Ghufran.
And that’s it! InshaAllah if you have any questions/comments/etc. or if you find uses of these in the Qur’an, post them inshaAllah too.