How to say "and": Chinese has several words for "and." Gēn is the word for "and"
when joining nouns or noun phrases. Yě is the word for "and" when Joining verbs,
verb phrases, or whole sentences:
Example 2.1. Example:
Wǒ bú xìng Lǐ, yě bú xìng Lǔ. Wǒ xìng Lǚ.
I'm not surnamed Lǐ and I'm not surnamed Lǔ. I'm surnamed Lǚ.
Chinese tends to use a word for "and" when the noun phrases being Joined are
not parallel and not to use one when the phrases are parallel:
Not parallel
Yǒu
wǒ tàitai
gēn
sānge háizi.
Possessor noun
number noun
There's my wife and
3 children.
Parallel
Yǒu
liǎngge nánháizi
,
yíge nǚháizi.
number noun
number noun
There are 2 boys and
one girl.
While "and" is often omitted in Chinese, it may be added for emphasis between
nouns and between noun phrases just as in English.