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I have a book with the following lesson titles:

  • 中文以及中国
  • 聚会和饮食
  • 交通与环境

Why are these terms connected with 以及 / 和 / 与, why not always use 和 for example?

Are there any rules for proper use of these conjunctions? What are the differences?

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Found an article about it in Chinese, motranslator.mysinablog.com/…. In many cases, they are somewhat interchangeable. 和 is much more common in informal oral Chinese, while 与 or 以及 are used mostly in written language. These are just personal perception. – Flake Dec 18 '11 at 18:23
@Flake: I wish I could read a text at that level :( – dr Hannibal Lecter Dec 18 '11 at 18:58

1 Answer

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There are a few differences between those three words:

  1. "以及" can only connect phrases,not words.
  2. The phrases after "以及" is commonly considered to secondary.
  3. "与" and "和" are used to express the relationship.
  4. "与" is more elegant than "和". such as "老人与海".
  5. "和" is mostly used in oral form.
  6. In some cases,"和" and "与" are somewhat interchangeable, such as "我和他做事方法不同" or "我与他做事方法不同".
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