Chinese Character Wiki
而

ér

and

Original meaning: 

beard

Originally a pictograph of a beard, now written as 耏. The current use as a conjunction is a phonetic loan.

Evolution

而 Bronze script Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
而 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
而 Clerical script Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)
而 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

而  

ér

and; and then; and yet; but; as well as; and so; but (not); yet (not); (indicates causal relation); (indicates change of state); (indicates contrast)

Most common words with 而
Freq.
Word
Meaning

而

and

而且

moreover

而已

that's all

而是

rather

然而

however

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

耍

Sound component in 7 characters (3 verified)

需 耎 耏 鴯 鸸 恧 鲕

Iconic component in 3 characters (3 verified)

耐 耎 耏

Unknown component in 1 character (0 verified)

斋

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*nə

nyi

ér

and, but


Statistics

HSK level 4

Appears in 98.6064% of movies

113th most common character in movies

36th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

6

Unicode

U+800C

Shuowen

“而，頰毛也。象毛之形。《周禮》曰：‘作其鱗之而。’”


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