And

This page explains the difficulty of the simple word and for English language learners.

You might think that and is one of the easiest words in the English language. However, after trying to answer the following quiz questions, you might want to think again!

Quiz

In this quiz, all you have to do is to decide which of the following sentences are problematic and which are not.

  • My favourite author has written an interesting and new book.
  • She is an interesting and intelligent author.
  • This book is not exciting and interesting.
  • I'm wearing my red and white socks today.
  • I'm wearing my short and white socks today.
  • This jacket is nice and warm.
  • This is a nice and warm jacket.
  • Go get your book.
  • Go and get your book.
  • If you are feeling unwell, you should try and eat something.
  • I was feeling unwell so I tried and ate something.
  • My favourite author has written an interesting and new book . - Problematic. It should be My favourite author has written an interesting new book or you could say My favourite author has written a new and interesting book .
  • She is an interesting and intelligent author. - Correct!
  • This book is not exciting and interesting. - Problematic. It should be This book is not exciting or interesting . Alternatively, This book is neither exciting nor interesting .
  • I'm wearing my red and white socks today. - Correct!
  • I'm wearing my short and white socks today . - Problematic. It should be I'm wearing my short, white socks today.
  • This jacket is nice and warm. - Correct! But nice and warm does not mean the jacket is nice and the jacket is warm , it means that the jacket is pleasantly warm.
  • This is a nice and warm jacket . - Problematic. In the expression nice and... the word nice is generally interpreted as an adverb qualifying the following adjective. It needs to be This is a pleasantly warm jacket. If the jacket is both nice and warm it should be a nice, warm jacket .
  • Go get your book. - Correct! (If you are American!)
  • Go and get your book.- Correct! (If you are British!)
  • If you are feeling unwell, you should try and eat something. - Correct!
  • I was feeling unwell so I tried and ate something . - Problematic, it should be I was feeling unwell so I tried to eat something.