和
hé
Expressing "and" with "he"
和 joins nouns only. It cannot join two clauses the way English "and" does.
Noun 1 + 和 + Noun 2
How it works
我和他 (he and I), 咖啡和茶 (coffee and tea). That's the whole job.
For "I ate and then went out", 和 is wrong — Chinese simply puts the clauses side by side, or uses 然后. 我吃了饭和我出去了 is not Chinese.
和 pairs naturally with 都: 我和他都不去.
Examples
wǒ hé tā dōu bú qù
我和他都不去。
Neither he nor I are going.
wǒ xǐ huan kā fēi hé chá
我喜欢咖啡和茶。
I like coffee and tea.
tā hé tā tài tài zhù zài běi jīng
他和他太太住在北京。
He and his wife live in Beijing.
Common mistakes
- Never use 和 to link two verbs or two sentences.