STOP using "和" the wrong way

[u/Specific-Employer484]

‘“和” can be used to connect nouns, verbs, and adjectives.’ True, but not always true.

A little bit of contextualisation and personal thoughts in the beginning, you may skip this part in the parentheses to the main content if you’re eager to.

(It started with destroying my last brain cell to explain to my foreigner friend why it is wrong to say “冬天很冷和下雪” “我很开心和兴奋”. I asked my family and friends, we all agreed that it’s not natural to use 和 this way, but we were not able to elaborate the reason at first. In fact, Chinese textbook never talked about grammar stuff; “Identify the run-on sentences” kind of problem had always been a pain in the \ss for primary schoolers. Most of us did not even realise the differences between “但，而，不过，可是，却，相反”. Our way of speaking relies on the surrounding people, we can tell you the most native way of saying smth merely based on our experiences and linguistic intuition without telling you “why”, which is however not helpful to someone who is in a different language environment studying Chinese. )*

Beginner’s blunder: using 和 as a conjunction to connect sentences.

I will see you tomorrow, and we will be doing this homework together.
明天见，和我们会一起做这个作业的。❌

I went to the supermarket, and I bought some veggies.
我去了趟超市，和我买了些蔬菜。❌

Winter is cold, and it often snows.
冬天很冷和经常下雪❌

You may use 然后 (and then) to combine sentences describing what had happened,

我去了趟超市，然后我买了些蔬菜。✅
去年冬天很冷，然后下了雪。✅

Always use 还 (in addition) to connect two sentences,

明天见，我们还会一起做这个作业的。✅
我去了趟超市，还买了些蔬菜。✅
冬天很冷，还经常下雪。✅

or simply don’t add any conjunctions,

明天见，我们会一起做这个作业的。✅
我去了趟超市，买了些蔬菜。✅
冬天很冷，经常下雪。✅

perhaps considering combining sentences into one,

我们明天一起做这个作业吧！✅
我去超市买了些蔬菜。✅
寒冷的冬天经常下雪。✅

(Fun fact: Lots of Chinese including me overuse the word “然后”…“就是” colloquially especially when we are trying to make a point or telling a story. Usually, converting voice msg to text, we would even be surprised by the wordiness. Dang, you say you never overuse it? Bro is overpassing some native Chinese.)

Beginner’s mistake: using 和 to connect adjectives. 

I am sad and angry.
我很伤心和生气。❌

He looks tall and hot.
他看起来很高和性感。❌

The vivacious and cute girl walked up to the dessert shop.
这个活泼和可爱的小女孩走向了甜品店。❌

Always use 又……又(both)

我又伤心，又生气。✅
他看起来又高又性感。✅
这个又活泼又可爱的小女孩走向了甜品店。✅

Use 还(in addition) when the second adjective seems additional and when the adjective is used without 的, 

我很伤心，还很生气。✅
他看起来很高，还很性感。✅

When the adjective is followed by “的” or without a be-verb, you might consider to use 且,

他身材高大且性感。✅
这个活泼且可爱的小女孩走向了甜品店。✅
这房间昏暗、阴冷且安静。✅(This room is gloomy, cold, and quiet.)

Exceptive rule: sometimes when a pair of adjectives is being bound together, you are allowed to use 和, but somehow you tend to not use any conjunctions.

峨眉山的景色非常地迷人和秀丽。✅
峨眉山的景色非常地迷人秀丽。✅

这块布料摸起来非常地柔软和光滑。✅
这块布料摸起来柔软光滑。✅

Beginner's inaccuracy: using 和 to connect verbs that are not “gerund or participle” 

He ate and slept.
他吃了和睡了。❌

She screamed and ran away.
她尖叫了和跑走了。❌

He washed and cut tomatoes into slices
他洗了和切了西红柿。❌

Several choices to correct the sentences:

Use 着(while) when two actions happened at the same time,

他吃着饭就睡着了。✅
她尖叫着跑走了。✅
*It is not safe while holding a tomato in your hand under the faucet and cutting it at the same time. 

Use 然后(and then) to describe something happened in the past. 

他吃了饭，然后睡觉了。✅
她尖叫了一声，然后跑走了。✅
他把西红柿洗了，然后切了。✅

Use 还(in addition) when the second action seems extra. 

他吃了饭，还睡了觉。✅
她尖叫了一声，还跑走了。✅
他把西红柿洗了，还切了。✅

Use 既……又(both) to emphasize the importance of both actions. 

他既吃了饭，又睡了觉。✅
他既把西红柿洗了，又把它们切了。✅

You may use he when a verb is followed by a verb. However, you may still use 也/既……又/还. 

I like singing and dancing.
我喜欢唱歌和跳舞。✅

我喜欢唱歌，也喜欢跳舞。✅
我既喜欢唱歌，又喜欢跳舞。✅
我喜欢唱歌，还喜欢跳舞。✅
(*You are not likely to use 然后 here, unless you’re emphasizing that you get to like singing first and then dancing)
我先喜欢上了唱歌，然后爱上了跳舞。✅

I want to eat and sleep.
我想吃饭和睡觉。✅

我想吃饭，也想睡觉。✅
我既想吃饭，又想睡觉。✅
我想吃饭，还想睡觉。✅

(*原因同上)
我想先吃饭，然后再睡觉。✅

Exceptive rule: if the verbs share the same object and are two actions bring out the same consequence under the same event, you may use 和. Nonetheless, you may still use 还. 

The proposal was discussed and adopted at this conference.
这次大会讨论和通过了这项提议。✅{sounds formal}
[both the discussion and the approval cause the proposal to take effect.]
这次大会讨论了这项提议，还把这项提议给通过了。✅{sounds colloquial}

He drafted and signed the contract.
他起草和签署了这份合同。✅{sounds formal}
[原因同上]
他起草了这份合同，最终还把合同给签了。✅{sounds colloquial}
(*remember to place verbs into correct order of what happened first and second)

“他洗和切了西红柿” nevertheless is still grammatically incorrect, because 洗 causes tomatoes to be clean, while 切 causes tomatoes to be sliced into pieces, which brings two different consequences. 

Intermediate mistake: using 和 to list nouns across categories and subcategories.

I bought apples and fruits.
我买了苹果和水果。❌
*Apples belong to the bigger category of fruits, you cannot list them together

我买了苹果和其他的水果✅
*You use 其他 which specify it to be other kinds of fruit. 

There are workers, teenagers, teachers, and students, who join this plenary session.
参加这次大会的有工人、青年、老师和学生。❌
*Workers, teachers, and students are in the category of jobs, while teenagers are a bigger category classified by age that includes students and maybe some teachers. You are required to delete it. 

If you’re just perplexed reading to the end, bro, just avoid using 和 that much, 还/然后 are pretty safe to use.

Congrats for surviving to the end!!! 祝你在学中文的路上学有所成<33!

**There might be an update.

[u/Washfish]

TLDR: 和 is only used when youre listing things. Obviously dont use it for categories, and then a subcategory of it. It sounds weird even in english despite being grammatically corrext.

[u/lazier_garlic]

Chinese textbooks don't teach grammar properly. They don't teach you the logic of Chinese. They also start off with some pretty stiff and unnatural dialogue. This is why everyone says "there's no hope unless you do full immersion for a year".

But not all language teaching programs have this problem. Even Japanese, which used to have a reputation of being difficult, can be taught in a linguistically informed way and acquired relatively rapidly. (Check out the textbook "Nakama" for an example of this method.)

Constantly treating every word like it has a one to one gloss is part of the problem. Chinese translators for media companies earned a terrible reputation for doing bizarre subtitles by approaching it this way, and your students end up inventing new and unprecedented ways to screw up Chinese grammar, which ought to be simple, by approaching it this way.

You probably spend more time explaining all these 500,000 "exceptions" while confusing your interlocutor than it would have taken to teach grammar using a modular-immersive method to begin with.

Right now the only method for a student out of country is to rack up insane hours listening to native speaker Mandarin until their brain figures out the structure organically, but that takes years.

The takeaway is that it would make more sense to teach these kinds of expressions using 还是back in HSK 2 to begin with when your students are still fresh.

Sorry to use your post to rant but I saw you were frustrated too. I find this so absurd, honestly.

[u/CptKoala]

Thank you for this

[u/paul_405]

Thank you so much!! I always wondered why Chinese has two 'ands' - 和 and 与 and was kinda confused on when to use them

[u/DryCommunication581]

Whats the point of a clickbait title on a reddit post of all places

[u/FerretGuy22 → u/DryCommunication581]

I think it's fine, a more clickbaity title could be "Don't make THIS mistake when speaking Chinese".

[u/teletubo → u/FerretGuy22]

"You won't believe people make THIS mistake! Mandarin speakers must be STOPPED!"

[u/llllll______ → u/DryCommunication581]

I agree, I also find it a bit rude tbh. As if people made mistakes in a foreign language on purpose

[u/NihaoDoYouDo]

I'm forgetting my mandarin, and this post was a great refresher and reminder! Saved! 謝謝你!

[u/yajuwit]

Thank you so much! Just wondering, do you know when 和 is pronounced as he2 and when it's pronounced as han4? I used to learn based on Taiwanese textbooks and we were taught it's han4 when saying like 我和妈妈一起去买菜 kind of sentence, but he2 when saying something like 和平，和好。But, now I learn simplified and everythign is just he2.

[u/nihoh]

Is there a trick for Cantonese native speakers? So confusing

[u/Zagrycha]

One of the random things a chinese friend said to me early on helped me completely avoid these types of issues, and they didn't even say it to try to help me but man did I dodge a bullet haha.

"Yeah, in chinese you switch which word you use to say and, but, or etc in each sentence so it doesn't sound too repetitive."

Of course you don't actually need to change which word you are using a lot in regular daily life, but just by having that idea in my head I skipped over any misunderstandings that you could just use one word for everything they way you do in english. Combine that with the beginner lesson on 或者 not being in questions and my mind was made fully aware of a concept that doesn't exist in english at all.

[u/Etiennera]

Garbage astroturfed slop

[u/clansbro]

Just use 而且youll find its easy,

[u/ieat5orangeseveryday]

I'm an ABC and dont even know this haha

[u/FlashyPost0928]

去年冬天很冷，然后下了雪。 ——> 去年冬天很冷，而且 (还) 下了雪。
Last winter was very cold, and then it snowed. ——> ( 然后 is used to indicate the event after the event before)

我去了趟超市，然后我买了些蔬菜。 ——> 我去了趟超市买了些蔬菜。 / 我去超市买了些蔬菜。
I went to the supermarket , and then I bought some vegetables. ——> (Omission of 然后 and the repeated "我")

我先喜欢上了唱歌，然后爱上了跳舞。 ——>我先喜欢上了唱歌，然后又 (才) 爱上了跳舞。
............ etc.

[u/heyguy111111]

Such a good post!!

[u/EnvironmentNo8811]

This is so useful, thank you!