Chinese Pronouns - Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Person	Singular				Plural*
First person	我 wǒ I, me				Exclusive		Inclusive†
					我们 wǒmen we, us		咱们 zánmen we, us
Second person	Informal		Formal		你们 nǐmen you
	你 nǐ you		您 nín you
Third person	他/她/它 tā s/he, him, her‡				他们/她们/它们 tāmen they, them‡

* The character to indicate plurality is 們 (men) in Traditional Chinese characters.

†Used to indicate 'you and I' (two people) only; in all other cases wǒmen is used. This form has fallen into disuse outside Beijing, and may be a Manchu influence.

‡In written Chinese, a distinction between masculine human 他 (he, him), feminine human 她 (she, her), and non-human 它 (it) was introduced in the early 20th century under European influence. 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'.

A second-person pronoun 祢 mí is sometimes used for addressing deities.

The first-person pronouns 俺 ǎn and 偶 ǒu "I" are often used in Mandarin. They are of dialectal origin, once spoken by the stereotypical countryside commoner. However, their usage is gaining popularity among the young, most notably in online communications. There are many other pronouns in other Chinese languages, such as Taiwanese Minnan 汝 (pinyin: rǔ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: lín) "you" and Written Cantonese 佢哋 (keúih deih) "they".

Traditional Chinese characters maintain several pronouns that in simplified Characters have been merged. The traditional system has both masculine and feminine forms of "you" (你 and 妳), although this distinction is not always maintained in writing anymore; in the simplified system, 妳 is rare. The traditional system also has three neuter third-person pronouns, 牠 (tā) for animals, 祂 for deities, and 它 for inanimate objects, but, again, this distinction is sometimes blurred in actual usage; in simplified Chinese, 它 is used in place of 牠.

There exist many more pronouns in Classical Chinese and in literary works, including 汝 (rǔ) or 爾 (ěr) for "you", and 吾 (wú) for "I" (see Chinese honorifics). However, they are not encountered in colloquial speech.