等 / 等等【děng / děngděng】

等 after a list says it could go on: "and so on", "etc.". Items are separated by 、, and 等 comes straight after the last one, with no 和. A noun naming the whole group often follows.

等等 does the same job and usually ends the list outright, with nothing after it. It is more common in speech.

等 with a number: the list is complete

When a number follows 等, the list is closed: those are all the items. 等 here means "these", not "etc.".

Where it goes wrong

English says "and so on" after "and". Chinese takes 等 alone.

• × 苹果、香蕉和等 → 苹果、香蕉等

On its own, 等 is also the verb "wait", and 等等 can be "wait a moment". After a list of nouns it is always "etc.".