Chinese pronouns (or) differ somewhat from pronouns in English and other Indo-European languages. For instance, there is no differentiation in the spoken language between "he", "she" and "it" (though a written difference was introduced after contact with the West), and pronouns are not inflected to indicate whether they are the subject or object of a sentence. Mandarin Chinese further lacks a distinction between the possessive adjective ("my") and possessive pronoun ("mine"); both are formed by appending the particle Chinese: 的 de. Pronouns in Chinese are often substituted by honorific alternatives.
| Person | Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Chinese: 我 wǒ I, me | Chinese: 我们 / Chinese: 我們* wǒmen we, us (exclusive) | Chinese: 咱们 / Chinese: 咱們† zánmen we, us (inclusive) | ||
| 2nd | Chinese: 你 nǐ thou, you (informal) | Chinese: 您 nín you (formal) | Chinese: 你们 / Chinese: 你們 nǐmen you (generic) | Chinese: 您们, 您們 nín you (formal) | |
| 3rd | Chinese: 他, Chinese: 她, Chinese: 它 tā he, him / she, her / it | Chinese: 他们 / 他們, Chinese: 她们 / 她們, Chinese: 它们 / 它們 tāmen they, them | |||
* Chinese: 我们 / Chinese: 我們 can be either inclusive or exclusive, depending on the circumstance where it is used.
† Chinese: 咱们 / Chinese: 咱們 is mainly used by northern speakers.
Following the iconoclastic May Fourth Movement in 1919, and to accommodate the translation of Western literature, written vernacular Chinese developed separate pronouns for gender-differentiated speech, and to address animals, deities, and inanimate objects.
Throughout the 1920s, a debate continued between three camps: those that preferred to preserve the preexisting use of Chinese: 他 without distinction between genders, those that wished to preserve the spoken non-gendered pronoun but introduce a new female pronoun Chinese: 她 in writing, and those that wished to introduce a differently pronounced female pronoun Chinese: 伊. The pronoun Chinese: 伊 enjoyed widespread support in the 1920s and 1930s but lost out to Chinese: 她 after the Chinese Civil War.[1] Currently, written pronouns are divided between the masculine human Chinese: 他 (he, him), feminine human Chinese: 她 (she, her), and non-human Chinese: 它 (it), and similarly in the plural. This distinction does not exist in the spoken language, where moreover tā is restricted to animate reference; inanimate entities are usually referred to with demonstrative pronouns for 'this' and 'that'.[2]
Other, rarer new written pronouns in the second person are nǐ (Chinese: 祢 "you, a deity"), nǐ (Chinese: 你 "you, a male"), and nǐ (Chinese: 妳 "you, a female"). In the third person, they are tā (Chinese: 牠 "it, an animal"), tā (Chinese: 祂 "it, a deity"), and tā (Chinese: 它 "it, an inanimate object"). Among users of traditional Chinese characters, these distinctions are only made in Taiwanese Mandarin; in simplified Chinese, tā (Chinese: 它) is the only third-person non-human form and nǐ (Chinese: 你) is the only second person form. The third person distinction between "he" (Chinese: 他) and "she" (Chinese: 她) remain in use in all forms of written standard Mandarin.[3]
In the early 21st century, some members of genderfluid and queer Chinese online communities started using X也 and TA to refer to a generic, anonymous, or non-binary third person.[4] As of June 2022, neither have been encoded as a single code point in Unicode,[5] and neither are considered standard usage. Since at least 2014, Bilibili has used TA in its user pages.[6]
There are many other pronouns in modern Sinitic languages, such as Taiwanese Hokkien Chinese: 恁 "you" and Written Cantonese Chinese: 佢哋 (keúih deih) "they." There exist many more pronouns in Classical Chinese and in literary works, including Chinese: 汝 (rǔ) or Chinese: 爾 (ěr) for "you", and Chinese: 吾 (wú) for "I" (see Chinese honorifics). They are not routinely encountered in colloquial speech.
| Historical | Modern | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shang and early Zhou period[7] [8] | Classical Chinese[9] | Northern and Southern dynasties period and Tang dynasty[10] | Standard Chinese (Mandarin Chinese) | Shanghainese (Wu Chinese) | Hokkien (Min Chinese)[11] | Meixian Hakka (Hakka Chinese)[12] [13] | Cantonese (Yue Chinese) | ||
| Singular | 1. | Chinese: 余, Chinese: 予, Chinese: 朕 | Chinese: 我, Chinese: 吾 (subjective and possessive only), Chinese: 余, Chinese: 予 | Chinese: 我 ngaX, Chinese: 吾 ngu | Chinese: 我 | Chinese: 吾 pronounced as /ŋu˩˧/ | Chinese: 我 | Chinese: pronounced as /ŋai11/ | Chinese: 我 pronounced as /ŋɔː˩˧/ |
| 2. | Chinese: 汝/女, Chinese: 乃 | Chinese: 爾, Chinese: 汝/女, Chinese: 而, Chinese: 若 | Chinese: 爾 nejX, Chinese: 汝/女 nyoX, Chinese: 你 nejX | Chinese: 你 | Chinese: 儂 pronounced as /noŋ˩˧/ | Chinese: 汝 | Chinese: 你 pronounced as /n11, ŋ11, ɲi11/ | Chinese: 你 pronounced as /nei˩˧/ | |
| 3. | Chinese: 厥 (possessive), Chinese: 之 (objective), Chinese: 其 (possessive),third person subject pronoun did not exist | Chinese: 之 (objective), Chinese: 其 (possessive), third person subject pronoun did not exist | Chinese: 其 gi, Chinese: 渠 gjo; Chinese: 伊 ’jij, Chinese: 之 tsyi, Chinese: 他 tha | Chinese: 他, Chinese: 她, Chinese: 它 | Chinese: 伊 pronounced as /ɦi˩˧/ | Chinese: 伊 | Chinese: 佢 pronounced as /ɡi11, i11/ | Chinese: 佢 pronounced as /kʰɵy˩˧/ | |
| Plural | 1. | Chinese: 我 | same as singular | Singular + Chinese: 等 tongX, Chinese: 曹 dzaw, Chinese: 輩 pwojH | Both INCL. and EXCL. Chinese: 我們 INCL. Chinese: 咱們 | Chinese: 阿拉 pronounced as /ɐʔ˧ lɐʔ˦/ | EXCL. Chinese: 阮 INCL. Chinese: 咱 | EXCL. Chinese: 兜/等 pronounced as /ŋai11 deu24/ŋai11 nen24/ INCL. Chinese: 這兜/大家 pronounced as /en24 ia31 deu24/en24 tai55 ga24/ | Chinese: 我哋 pronounced as /ŋɔː˩˧ tei˨/ |
| 2. | Chinese: 爾 | Chinese: 你們 | Chinese: 㑚 pronounced as /na˩˧/ | Chinese: 恁 | Chinese: 你兜/你等 pronounced as /ŋ11 deu24/ŋ11 nen24/ | Chinese: 你哋 pronounced as /nei˩˧ tei˨/ | |||
| 3. | (not used) | Chinese: 伊拉 pronounced as /ɦi˩ lɐʔ˧/ | Chinese: | Chinese: 佢兜/佢等 pronounced as /ɡi11 deu24/i11 nen24/ | |||||
To indicate alienable possession, Chinese: 的 (de) is appended to the pronoun. For inalienable possession, such as family and entities very close to the owner, this may be omitted, e.g. Chinese: 我妈/我媽 (wǒ mā) "my mother". For older generations, Chinese: 令 (lìng) is the equivalent to the modern form Chinese: 您的 (nínde), as in Chinese: 令尊 (lìngzūn) "your father". In literary style, Chinese: 其 (qí) is sometimes used for "his" or "her" or as a gender-neutral pronoun; e.g. Chinese: 其父 means "his father" or "her father".
In Cantonese, for possessive, Chinese: 嘅 (ge3) is appended to the pronoun. It is used in the same way as Chinese: 的 in Mandarin.
In Taiwanese Hokkien, possessive pronouns are homophonous with plural pronouns. For example, Chinese: 恁 can mean either "your" or "you (plural)".
The demonstrative pronouns work the same as in English.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Proximal | Chinese: 这个 / Chinese: 這個 zhège this | Chinese: 这些 / Chinese: 這些 zhèxiē these | |
| Distal | Chinese: 那个 / Chinese: 那個 nàge that | Chinese: 那些 nàxiē those |
The distinction between singular and plural are made by the classifier Chinese: 个/個 (gè) and Chinese: 些 (xiē), and the following nouns remain the same. Usually inanimate objects are referred using these pronouns rather than the personal pronouns Chinese: 它 (tā) and Chinese: 它們 (tāmen). Traditional forms of these pronouns are: Chinese: 這個 (zhège), Chinese: 這些 (zhèxiē), Chinese: 那個 (nàge), Chinese: 那些 (nàxiē), and Chinese: 它們 tāmen.
| Pronoun | Alternative HÉ-system | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese: 谁 / Chinese: 誰 shéi | Chinese: 何人 hérén (what person) | who | |
| Chinese: 哪个 / Chinese: 哪個 nǎge | Chinese: 何个 / Chinese: 何個 hége (what one) | which one | |
| Chinese: 什麼 / Chinese: 什么 shénme | Chinese: 何 Chinese: 何物 hé / héwù (what) | what | |
| Chinese: 哪裡 / Chinese: 哪里 nǎlǐ Chinese: 哪兒 / Chinese: 哪儿 nǎr | Chinese: 何处 / Chinese: 何處 héchù Chinese: 何地 hédì (what location) | where | |
| Chinese: 什麼時候 / Chinese: 什么时候 shénme shíhou | Chinese: 何时 / Chinese: 何時 héshí (what time) | when | |
| Chinese: 为什么 / Chinese: 為什麼 wèi shénme | Chinese: 爲何 / Chinese: 為何 wèihé (for what) | why | |
| Chinese: 怎么 / Chinese: 怎麼 zěnme | Chinese: 如何 rúhé (what to follow) | how | |
| Chinese: 多少 duōshǎo Chinese: 几 / Chinese: 幾 jǐ | Chinese: 几何 / Chinese: 幾何 jǐhé (what the amount) | how much |
| Pronoun | English | |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese: 大家 dàjiā | everyone | |
| Chinese: 谁都 shéidōu | ||
| Chinese: 谁也 shéiyě | anybody | |
| Chinese: 谁都不 shéidōubù | no one | |
| Chinese: 谁也不 shéiyěbù | nobody |
See also Chinese honorifics.
In imperial times, the pronoun for "I" was commonly omitted when speaking politely or to someone with higher social status. "I" was usually replaced with special pronouns to address specific situations. Examples include guǎrén (Chinese: 寡人) during early Chinese history and zhèn (Chinese: 朕) after the Qin dynasty when the Emperor is speaking to his subjects. When the subjects speak to the Emperor, they address themselves as chén (Chinese: 臣), or "your official". It was extremely impolite and taboo to address the Emperor as "you" or to refer to oneself as "I".
In modern times, the practice of self-deprecatory terms is still used in specific formal situations. In résumés, the term guì (Chinese: 贵/貴; lit. noble) is used for "you" and "your"; e.g., guì gōngsī (Chinese: 贵公司/貴公司) refers to "your company". Běnrén (Chinese: 本人; lit. this person) is used to refer to oneself.
. Daniel Kane (linguist). The Chinese Language: Its History and Usage. Tuttle. North Clarendon, VT. 2006. 0-8048-3853-4 . 77522617.