The difference between 和 and 跟

[brilight]

I find many Chinese learners use 跟 to represent "and" . But as a native Chinese, I seldom hear people say "我要A跟B" It sounds very informal and childish. I always hear "我要A和B." "跟" has an underlying meaning of following, like the English word "with". I am not sure the interpretation of "with" is correct or not.

我和父母住在一起 means "My parents and I live together" ( we are equal, the subordination is unclear)

我跟父母住在一起 may mean "I live with my parents" ( I am the subordinate of my parents. They may be the owner of the house)

For the sentence A跟B, From my experience,

跟 can mean "and" when A and B are both object like food, equipment, toys. But 跟 is oral and informal in the meaning.

跟 will mean "with or following" when A and B are living things.

This is an extract of 高级汉语大词典 . One of the meanings is

gēn

表示联合关系,相当于和、与 [and]。如:桌子放着笔跟纸;水跟土(水和土);孩子跟妇女(孩子与妇女);他的手跟脚都沾了泥 比较“跟”、“同”、“和”、“与”： （１）――用作介词时，口语中常用“跟”，书面语现在倾向于用“同”。用作连词时，一般倾向于用“和”，较少用“跟”，用“同”则更少 （２）――“与”多用于书面，尤其多用在书名、标题中

和 1

hé

〈连〉

(1)与 [and]。如:他和他的儿子在这里;北京、天津、上海和广州

(2)加在一起 [and]。如:你的咖啡有奶油和糖

(3)表示选择,相当于“或” [or]。常用于“无论、不论、不管”后。如:去和不去,由你自己决定

Edited February 19, 2010 at 03:56 AM by brilight

[Daan]

From my experience, 跟 can mean "and". when A and B are both objects. But 跟 is oral and informal in the meaning.

Could you give an example of what you mean by a sentence where A and B are both objects? Because in the sentence 我要A跟B, A跟B is the object, but you say you wouldn't utter that sentence all the same

[trien27]

To mean "and"/"with":

跟 & 同 are used more in non-Mandarin dialects.

与/與 & 和 are used more in Mandarin.

[brilight]

Daan,

我要橙汁和米饭 where A and B are objects,( in normal conversations)

我要橙汁跟米饭, (acceptable, but informal and childish)

[brilight]

trien27

I appreciate that. Very good explanation

[Shi Tong]

Hello!

Forgive my inability to read all Chinese characters, especially simplified ones.

However:

In Taiwan, I feel there is a palpable difference between the two words mentioned, when you're doing something with someone, it's always 跟 something. 和 is used to bring things together, so..

我跟父母住在一起 would be correct there, and IMO, would definately not sound childish. Maybe more informal than the written word, but certainly not childish.

我和父母住在一起 I've not heard of. Maybe in the written word, the Taiwanese would still use this, but I'm not sure.

和 is used for phrases like:

bu2 shi4 和 (not suitable.. "cannot be bought together").

I might be wrong though!!

[renzhe]

shìhé is 适合 (適合), it has nothing to do with the character 和.

I'd be surprised if 和 were not used in Taiwan.

EDIT: Isn't 和 read "han" in Taiwan? Or maybe only in some contexts?

[chrix]

Of course 和 is used in Taiwan, though note as a conjunction it is usually pronounced as hàn (I think if used as a co-verb it would still be hé).

I'd be reluctant to make judgements like the OP or Shi Tong without a proper corpus analysis. (and Shi Tong, your constant bickering about simplified is getting old. They aren't that different, so it should be easy to learn, and if you really can't read it, there's plenty of converters around)

I mean I don't doubt the OP's judgement but it is not clear what the actual underlying grammatical reason for the perceived unsuitability is. It might have something to with the object position, but it could be something different.

EDIT: As the OP cited themself, and as my 虚词词典 seems to concur, it might just be a register difference, i.e. 跟 being informal, 和 more formal, 與 even more formal and 同 dialectal/regional (not entirely sure about the last one). So that's probably why 跟 might sound "childish" to the OP. (I must say I'm still not too convinced about the object position thing so that makes more sense to me)

[renzhe]

I used to think that I could figure out the difference between using 跟 and 和, but the last thread on the topic convinced me that it's far more difficult than I thought. There's always a counter-example.

I have a feeling that they are somehow different, or at least convey a slightly different relation, but I definitely can't put my finger on it.