Chinese pronouns
There are seven basic Chinese pronouns:
- 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 difference between 你 and 妳 is not always maintained. The distinction between 他 and 她 is usually maintained. 牠 is supposed to be used for all animals (note the 牛 radical) and 它 for inanimate objects, but this distinction is sometimes blurred. In Simplified Chinese, 妳 & 牠 are no longer used.
The plural pronouns are formed by simply adding "们 / 們" men to the end of each pronoun; thus, 你们,我们,他/她/牠/它们, or 你們,我們,他/她/牠/它們 would mean you plural, we and they respectively.
The pronoun 您 nin2 is used as a formal version of the second person pronoun, and does not occur in a feminine or plural form, so 您们 / 您們 do not exist.
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.
The Possesive Pronoun
To indicate possession, "的" is simply added after each pronoun. Although in literature, "的" is often skipped to fit literary forms of writing. This is also the case with some daily speech. For example, 我妈 and 我的妈妈 both indicate "my mom".
See also: