Expressing "with" with 跟 and its proper position in a sentence

Subj. + 跟 + Person + Verb + Obj.

❌ 我昨天 去海滩 了 跟朋友。

✅ 我昨天 跟朋友去 海滩了。

Wǒ zuótiān gēn péngyou qù hǎitān le.

I went to the beach with friends yesterday.

The preposition 跟 (gēn) is commonly used to express "with." Just remember that the "with" phrase comes before the verb.

Subj. + 跟 + Person + 一起 + Verb + Obj.

谁跟谁一起做什么事 sounds more natural than 谁跟谁做什么事, though grammatically, the second structure also works and makes sense.

But in most circumstances, the word 一起 (yìqǐ, together) is used a lot with 跟 (gēn), expressing the idea of "doing something together with somebody." It may seem kind of redundant, but it's totally normal in Chinese to use both.

✅ 明天我要跟老板出差。

Míngtiān wǒ yào gēn lǎobǎn chūchāi.

👍🏻 明天我要跟老板一起出差。

Míngtiān wǒ yào gēn lǎobǎn yìqǐ chūchāi.

I'm going on a business trip together with the boss tomorrow.

👍🏻 你想跟我一起去吗？

Nǐ xiǎng gēn wǒ yīqǐ qù ma?

Do you want to go with me together?

Use "跟" with "见面", "结婚", and "聊天"

One of the most common beginner mistakes is to fail to use 跟 (gēn) with 见面 (jiànmiàn). In Chinese, 见面, to meet, 结婚 (jiéhūn), "to marry," and 聊天 (liáotiān), "to chat" are intransitive verbs, they can't go with objectives immediately.

It might help to think of 见面 (jiànmiàn) as "to meet with (somebody)," the "with" cluing you into the fact that you need a 跟 (gēn) in there. The verbs 结婚 and 聊天 are used with 跟 (gēn) in the same way.

Check out the examples below:

❌ 我要 见面你。

✅ 我要跟你见面。

Wǒ yào gēn nǐ jiànmiàn.

I want to meet with you.

❌ 你什么时候见面她？

✅ 你什么时候 跟她见面 ？

Nǐ shénme shíhou gēn tā jiànmiàn?

When are you going to meet with her?

❌ 她 结婚了 一个比她小十岁的男人。

✅ 她跟一个比她小十岁的 男人结婚了。

Tā gēn yīgè bǐ tā xiǎo shí suì de nánrén jiéhūn le.

She married a man ten years younger than her.

❌ 读书就好像 聊天那些作者。

✅ 读书就好像 和/跟那些作者聊天。

Dúshū jiù hǎoxiàng hé/gēn nàxiē zuòzhě liáotiān.

Reading is like chatting with those authors.

Credit: Situ Chinese

in Grammar