且
qiě
moreover, also; about to, will soon
Meaning
- Additive/Cumulative: "moreover," "also," "furthermore."
- Prospective: "about to," "will soon."
- Provisional: "for the time being" or "temporarily"; suggesting a pause or a smaller action to be completed before the main course of action proceeds.
Grammar and usage
- Pre-verbal: Indicates an action is imminent or on the verge of occurring.
- Post-subject: Functions as an adverb or conjunction to layer reasons, attributes, or arguments.
Distinctions
Contrast with 又: while 又 typically denotes repetition or a separate instance, 且 is cumulative, adding weight to a preceding point.
Translator notes
Avoid flattening the glyph into a simple "and." Meaning is generally determined by position: pre-verbal suggests temporal imminence, while post-subject suggests rhetorical addition.
Decontextualized translator aid. This page describes plausible lexical range; it does not choose what the glyph means in a particular passage.