"Y" en lugar de "Que" ("y" instead of "que)?

Question

Hola a todos.

In order to keep my proficiency in Spanish high, I have dedicated myself to reading Spanish online. Something that I've recently seen is the phenomenon of the letter "y" in the place of "que" after "esperar" in subjective sentences.

For example, "Espero y llegue Lady Gaga en mi país."

Shouldn't it be "espero que" instead of "espero y"? Is this some type of hip Spanish trend in Internet writing, because I've never seen this construction of "esperar y" in professional writing or spoken Spanish. I know this is such a minor thing to get worked up about, but I'm forever curious.

Muchas gracias a todos que me puedan ayudar.

Hi cmusba! In text messages, some people will use the letter 'q' instead of 'que', so they would say something like (espero q estes bien). But I don't see why someone would replace it with a 'y', It makes it harder to understand the sentence - marksteve, Jun 20, 2016

Interesting discussion in this thread comparing it to the English "try and do something" instead of "try to.." http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/espero-y-espero-que.1134639/ - bosquederoble, Jun 20, 2016

So it I S a regionalism. I thought so. Where I have seen it is in newspapers or magazines or on the net where someone is being quoted. - Daniela2041, Jun 21, 2016

Thanks for replies! - cmusba, Jun 22, 2016

Answer 1

I have seen this construction before. I don't use it myself. I found it in several places on the net, but can find no rule for it anywhere. I've seen it used with both "espero" and "ojalá."

Thanks. It was really bothering me! - cmusba, Jun 22, 2016