而

and, but: joins two ideas

No. 64 most used

How it's built

A single shape: nothing smaller to learn.

A way to remember it

It began as a drawing of a beard. Now it links ideas: 而且 and also.

Words

• 而且

  ér qiě

  (not only ...) but also; moreover; in addition; furthermore
• 而已

  ér yǐ

  that's all; nothing more
• 而是

  ér shì

  rather
• 然而

  rán ér

  however; but; yet
• 而言

  ér yán

  (typically preceded by 就…[jiu4 xx5] or 對…|对…[dui4 xx5] etc) as far as ... is concerned; speaking in terms of ...

Sentences

• 我只是想看她而已。

  wǒ zhǐ shì xiǎng kàn tā ér yǐ

  I just wanted to see her.
• 我只是说说而已！

  wǒ zhǐ shì shuō shuō ér yǐ

  I'm just saying!
• 他也只是个政治家而已。

  tā yě zhǐ shì gè zhèng zhì jiā ér yǐ

  He's also just a politician.
• 他们分道而行。

  tā men fēn dào ér xíng

  They went their separate ways.

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How often characters are written: wordfreq by Robyn Speer, CC BY-SA 4.0, with data from Google Books Ngrams and SUBTLEX by Marc Brysbaert and others. Meanings: CC-CEDICT, CC BY-SA 4.0. Sentences: Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR. How often they're said: FrequencyWords and OPUS, from OpenSubtitles.