Page 35 - Basic English Usage

31-32

We say divide between and share between before singular nouns.
Before plural nouns, we can say between or among.
He divided his money between his wife, his daughter and his sister.
| shared the food between/among all my friends.

31 and

AandB
A, BandC
A, B, Cand D

When we join two or more expressions, we usually put and before the
last. (For rules about commas, see 266.1.)
bread and cheese
We drank, talked and danced.
! wrote the letters, Peter addressed them, George bought the stamps
and Alice posted them.

In two-word expressions, we often put the shortest word first.
young and pretty Cup and saucer
Some common expressions with and have a fixed order which we
cannot change.
hands and knees (NOT knees-and-hards)
knife and fork — bread and butter
men, women and children — fish and chips

We do not usually use and with adjectives before a noun.
Thanks for your nice long letter. (NOT ... -yourniee-andtong-etter-)
a tall dark handsome cowboy
But we use and when the adjectives refer to different parts of the same
thing.
redand yellow socks ametaland glass table
Note: and is usually pronounced /and/, not /aend/. (See 358.)
For ellipsis (leaving words cut) with and, in expressions like the bread and (the)
butter, see 108.2. For and after try, wait, go, come etc, see 32

32 and after try, wait, go etc

We often use tryand ... instead of tryto ...
This is informal
Try and eat something — you'll feel better if you do.
I'll try and phone you tomorrow morning.