并 (bìng) · and; furthermore; also

Meanings

1 and; furthermore; also
2 together with; simultaneously
3 to combine; to merge; to amalgamate
4 (not) at all; by no means

Characters

并

bìng

and; together; combine

Examples

HSK 3

事情并不简单。

Shìqing bìng bù jiǎndān.

The matter is not simple at all.

HSK 5

两家公司决定合并。

Liǎng jiā gōngsī juédìng hébìng.

The two companies decided to merge.

HSK 7-9

他们并肩作战。

Tāmen bìngjiān zuòzhàn.

They fought shoulder to shoulder.

Tips

grammar

The high-frequency pattern is 并 + negative (并不, 并没有, 并非). It does not strengthen the negation by degree - it signals that the negation runs counter to expectation, like English 'actually not' or 'not at all (despite what you might think)'.

usage

As a conjunction ('and; moreover'), 并 is formal and leans written. In everyday speech use 而且 or 并且. As a verb ('combine; merge; annex'), 并 is bound - it appears inside compounds (合并, 兼并, 吞并) rather than as a free standalone verb.

register

Read as 并 (first tone) only in the rare proper-noun sense - the short name for Taiyuan 太原, capital of Shanxi, dating back to the ancient Bingzhou prefecture. Nearly all modern usage is 并 (fourth tone); the Bīng reading turns up mainly in historical or literary contexts.

Components

ideograph

丷 bā

two splayed strokes (split marker)

The top two splayed strokes - an abstract cap also seen on 关, 半, 兰. Historically 并 pictured two people standing side by side; the simplified form trims the figures down to these two parallel strokes capping the body below.

semantic

开 kāi

open

The bottom 4-stroke body - graphically identical to standalone 开 (open), but here functioning as the stylised lower halves of two parallel figures rather than carrying the 'open' meaning. Together with the 丷 top this gives the side-by-side silhouette behind 并's senses of 'parallel, combine, and (also)'. Indexed under Kangxi #51 干 by tradition, though no shield-element survives in the modern form.

Filed under radical 干 (gān, #51) by convention. 干 is not a separate component in 并, so no strokes are highlighted.