Personal and Possessive Pronouns in Chinese

Personal Pronouns

In Mandarin, singular personal pronouns are the same as in Spanish. For example: Wǒ = I. Plurals are formed by adding “men” at the end. For example: Wǒ + men = we.

Singular Pronouns

• I: 我 (Wǒ) 🔊
• You: 你 (Nǐ) 🔊
• He: 他 (Tā) 🔊
• She: 她 (Tā) 🔊
• It: 它 (Tā) 🔊

Plural Pronouns

• We: 我们 (Wǒmen) 🔊
• You (plural): 你们 (Nǐmen) 🔊
• They (male): 他们 (Tāmen) 🔊
• They (female): 她们 (Tāmen) 🔊
• They (neutral): 它们 (Tāmen) 🔊

To refer to he/she/it, the pronunciation is the same, but the writing is different.

Examples

• I love you: 我爱你 (Wǒ ài nǐ) 🔊
• Love: 爱 (Ài) 🔊
• I like him: 我喜欢他 (Wǒ xǐhuān tā) 🔊
• Like: 喜欢 (Xǐhuān) 🔊

Possessive Pronouns

In Chinese, to form the possessive of pronouns or any word, the word is followed by the character “de”. For example: Wǒ + de = mine.

Possessive Pronouns

• My/mine: 我的 (Wǒ de) 🔊
• Yours: 你的 (Nǐ de) 🔊
• His: 他的 (Tā de) 🔊
• Hers: 她的 (Tā de) 🔊
• Its: 它的 (Tā de) 🔊
• Ours: 我们的 (Wǒmen de) 🔊
• Yours (plural): 你们的 (Nǐmen de) 🔊
• Theirs (male): 他们的 (Tāmen de) 🔊
• Theirs (female): 她们的 (Tāmen de) 🔊
• Theirs (neutral): 它们的 (Tāmen de) 🔊

Examples

Some examples we will see are composed of the pronoun + possessive particle “de” + word. For example: Wǒ + de + māma

• My mom: 我的妈妈 (Wǒ de māma) 🔊
• My friend: 我的朋友 (Wǒ de péngyǒu) 🔊

Activities

Now it’s your turn to create your own sentences with the following words:

• My dog: 我的狗 (Wǒ de gǒu) 🔊
• Dog: 狗 (Gǒu) 🔊
• Book: 书 (Shū) 🔊
• Car: 车 (Chē) 🔊
• Cat: 猫 (Māo) 🔊