Ways to say AND in Chinese – You, me and 和 (hé)

How to express “and” in Chinese?

Just like you can’t use the same measure word for everything in Chinese, you can’t use the word 和 hé every single time you say ‘and’. Don’t worry though, it’s not as tricky as it sounds!

For some situations when you want to say “and”, you should use completely different words or structures, but they’re actually fairly simple to learn. We’ve compiled a list below of the most common ways to express ‘and’ and how to use them.

Have a look through our useful sentences and see if you can remember at least one for every example. It’ll make it a lot easier for you to use the structures in the future if you know how to use them!

👉 和 hé is commonly used for nouns:

• 我喜欢喝咖啡和红茶
• Wǒ xǐhuān hē kāfēi hé hóngchá⠀
• I like to drink coffee and black tea⠀

👉 For adjectives, you’ll need a structure:⠀

• 我今天又累又热⠀
• Wǒ jīntiān yòu lèi yòu rè
• I feel tired and hot today

⠀
👉 If you want to combine 2 sentences, you’ll need to use “然后” ránhòu (then) instead of 和 hé⠀

• 我去了一个饭店，然后点了很多中国菜
• Wǒ qùle yīgè fàndiàn, ránhòu diǎnle hěnduō zhōngguó cài
• I went to a restaurant and (then) ordered a lot of Chinese dishes⠀

👉 The second way to combine 2 sentences is to use “而且” érqiě (besides) instead of 和 hé⠀

• 我会说汉语，而且我会写汉字⠀
• Wǒ huì shuō hànyǔ, érqiě wǒ huì xiě hànzì
• I can speak Chinese, and (besides) I can write characters⠀

💡 How to express AND in Chinese practise? Here you go!⠀

Fill in the gaps with the right word/structure⠀
⠀
1. 我去了咖啡馆，________点了一杯咖啡。⠀
2. 我有一个哥哥、一个姐姐________两个妹妹。⠀
3. 明天很冷，________还会下雪。⠀
4. 水果________便宜________好吃。