I know how to use 和 to link one or more nouns or noun phrases, but in this sentence I don't understand what purpose does it do at the beginning of the sentence?
和西方人过圣诞节差不多，这是一个全家团聚的节日。
(This sentence is from a text about 春节)
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Here the use of 和 and 差不多 is similar to the phrasing "Like how" in English. "Like how Westerners celebrate Christmas, this [Chinese New Year] is a holiday when the entire family gets together." |
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A literal meaning of 和 is "with." But here, the context is not a literal with. It's more like "similar to." That could be "with" in a figurative sense. |
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The best way to translate the 和 in this sentence is using "how". The sentence roughly translates to "Spring festival is similar to how Westerners spend Christmas, this is a festival where the whole family gets together." However, this is more of a contextual translation. 和 should be closer to "with" but it doesn't make exact sense to say Spring festival is similar to being with Westerners at Christmas... Normally you would see something like this:
Eating with Westerners
Spend Christmas with Westerners |
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