Our character for today is 而
Simplified Chinese character: 而
Traditional Chinese character: 而
(The simplified character and the traditional character are the same)
Pronunciation:
This character is pronounced ér in the 2nd tone.
What it means:
On its own, 而 is used in the middle of a sentence as a connector and means ‘and’ or ‘furthermore’.
It is also used in connecting words like 而且 (furthermore), 然而 (however) and so on.
Let’s break it down:
Originally, 而 came from a picture of a beard or whiskers, a meaning which is irrelevant for the modern meaning, because the character was borrowed for the modern meaning simply because it had the same sound.