和

和 (hé) is the standard Chinese word for 'and' when joining nouns or noun phrases, and for 'with' in phrases like 'I went with him.' Crucial rule: 和 connects nouns, not whole sentences. 我和你 (I and you) is fine, but you cannot say '我吃饭和我睡觉' to mean 'I eat and I sleep' — that requires separate sentences or other connectors. 和 also serves as a preposition meaning 'with' in 我和朋友一起去 (I went with friends). Two pronunciation notes: 和 is read hé as a conjunction, but the same character has other readings (huó 'mix,' hè 'echo / harmonize') in different words. In Taiwan, the conjunction 和 is commonly pronounced hàn.

Note: 和 is the everyday written and spoken form. In casual northern speech you may hear 跟 (gēn) used the same way; 与 (yǔ) is the formal/literary alternative for written Chinese.

Memory hook: 和 also means 'harmony' — when two things are joined harmoniously, they're 'and' together.