Formal/written equivalent of 和. Newspapers, contracts, academic prose, and titles (理论与实践) prefer 与; conversation uses 和 or 跟. Using 与 in casual chat sounds bookish.
grammar
The pattern 与其 A 不如 B ('rather than A, better to B') is the most common fixed frame - drill it as a unit. The literary verb sense 'to give / grant' survives mainly in compounds like 赠与 and 给与; it isn't used as a free-standing verb in modern speech.
Final long horizontal is the 一 radical and the entry's filing point. It is the surface across which the handing-over happens; the whole simplified silhouette retains just enough of 與 to keep the 'give, together with' meaning.
ideograph
与yǔ
give; with (upper fused body)
Three-stroke indivisible cursive contraction acting as a single stylized silhouette; no longer corresponds to a standalone CJK component. Historically the heavily collapsed top of traditional 與's interlocking-hands element, reduced by the 1956 reform to this compact shape suggesting hands handing something across.
