Chinese Conversation · Level 3
86 words
Chinese word
他
Pronunciation
Pinyintā
Meaning
- pronounhe
Example
他是我的好朋友。tā shì wǒ de hǎo péng yǒu
He is my good friend.
More examples
他有一本书。tā yǒu yì běn shū
He has a book.
Core concept
A reference to one male person outside the speaker-listener pair.
Common phrases
他是tā shì
he is
他有tā yǒu
he has
他的tā de
his
Similar words
我wǒ: Refers to the person who is speaking.
你nǐ: Refers to the one person being spoken to.
她tā: Refers to one female person who is outside the speaker-listener pair.
它tā: Refers to one animal or thing.
Definition in Chinese
指代第三人称单数，通常用于指男性，在口语中与“她”“它”同音但书写上用以表明人称和性别。zhǐ dài dì sān rén chēng dān shù tōng cháng yòng yú zhǐ nán xìng zài kóu yǔ zhōng yǔ tā tā tóng yīn dàn shū xiě shàng yòng yǐ biǎo míng rén chēng hé xìng bié
Word origin
他 (tā, "he") combines 亻 (rén, "person") with 也 (yě, "also"), which serves as the phonetic component in this person-related pronoun.
Usage tips
- In speech, the third-person forms for a man, a woman, and a thing sound alike, so the written character carries information that English speech often shows in the pronoun itself.