而
ér HSK2

and

而 ér
conjunction indicating cause and result conjunction
conjunction used to connect a cause or reason with a result, often translated as 'and thus' or 'and so'

他因为家里有急事而提前离开了。

tā yīn​wèi jiā lǐ yǒu jí​shì ér tí​qián lí​kāi le.

He left early because of an urgent family matter.

and conjunction
connects words or phrases to express coordination, addition, or sequence

这是一个伟大而艰巨的任务。

zhè shì yī gè wěi​dà ér jiān​jù de rèn​wu.

This is a great and arduous task.

but conjunction
connects clauses or phrases to express contrast, opposition, or a turn in meaning

我们要的是质量，而不仅仅是数量。

wǒ​men yào de shì zhì​liàng, ér bù jǐn​jǐn shì shù​liàng.

What we want is quality, not just quantity.

to conjunction
indicates a transition or change of state from one condition to another

我们的祖国正由弱而强。

wǒ​men de zǔ​guó zhèng yóu ruò ér qiáng.

Our motherland is growing from weak to strong.

Frequency
Character
Written text
36th most common 3355.2 per million
Movie subtitles
113th most common 1547.0 per million appears in 99% of films
Word
Movie subtitles
1173.9 per million appears in 94% of films
Written text
1900.8 per million

Details
HSK 2.0
Level 3
HSK 3.0
Level 2
Strokes
6
Unicode
U+800C

Sources
Definitions
CC-CEDICT
Frequency data
MTSU Chinese text computingSUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)