Chinese pronouns Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
There are seven basic Chinese pronouns in Vernacular Chinese:
- 我 wo3 (1st sing.)
- 你,妳 ni3, ni3 (2nd sing. for masculine/feminine respectively)
- 他,她,牠,它 ta1, ta1, ta1, ta1 (3rd sing. for he/she/it [animate]/it [inanimate] respectively).
The plural pronouns are formed by simply adding "们 / 們"(men) to the end of each pronoun; thus, 你们,我们,咱们,他/她/牠/它们, or 你們,我們,他/她/牠/它們 would mean you plural, we and they respectively. To indicate the Christian God in writing, 祂 is used.
The pronoun 您(nin2) is used as a formal version of the second person pronoun, but does not occur in the feminine case.
As can be seen above, all pronouns for the second person are pronounced identically, and the same for the third person; the orthographic distinctions were only introduced after Westernizing influences came into China.
There exist many more pronouns in Classical Chinese and in literary works, although the ones listed above are the most common in colloquialism.
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2 The Reflexive Pronoun 3 Pronouns in Imperial Times and Self-Depreciatory 4 Inclusive and Exclusive |
The Possessive Pronoun
To indicate possession, "的"(de) is appended to the pronoun. In literature or in some daily phrases this is often omitted, e.g., 我妈/我媽(wo3 ma1); is a synonym for 我的妈妈/我的媽媽 (wo3 de ma1ma1, "my mom").
See also:
This is an Article on Chinese pronouns. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Chinese pronouns The Reflexive Pronoun
The singular personal pronouns (for humans) may be made reflexive by appending 自己(zi4ji3).Pronouns in Imperial Times and Self-Depreciatory
In imperial times, the pronoun for "I" is commonly omitted when speaking politely or to someone with higher social status. "I" is usually replaced with special pronouns to address specific situations. Examples include 寡人 "gua3 ren2" during early Chinese history and 朕 "zhen4" after the Qin dynasty.Inclusive and Exclusive
In Chinese, for the first person plural there are usually two forms, the Inclusive, and Exclusive. In English this is typically "We". In the present imperative, 咱们/咱們 is usually used. Otherwise, most other situations use 我们/我們 instead. This usage is not found in Taiwanese Mandarin, in which 我們 is used for all usages of 'we'.