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Understanding characters related to people is fundamental to reading and speaking Chinese. This lesson covers essential characters for describing people, personal pronouns, demonstratives, and possessives.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Stroke Count | Example Word |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 人 | rén | person/people | 2 | 人们 (rén men) — people |
| 大 | dà | big/large | 3 | 大人 (dà rén) — adult |
| 小 | xiǎo | small/little | 3 | 小孩 (xiǎo hái) — child |
| 子 | zǐ/zi | child/son | 3 | 孩子 (hái zi) — child |
| 女 | nǚ | woman/female | 3 | 女人 (nǚ rén) — woman |
| 男 | nán | man/male | 7 | 男人 (nán rén) — man |
| 老 | lǎo | old/elderly | 6 | 老人 (lǎo rén) — elderly person |
| 少 | shǎo | few/young | 4 | 少年 (shào nián) — youth |
| 朋 | péng | friend | 8 | 朋友 (péng yǒu) — friend |
| 友 | yǒu | friend/friendly | 4 | 友好 (yǒu hǎo) — friendly |
Memory Tip: The character 人 (person) looks like a person walking with two legs. When used as a radical on the left side of characters, it is written as 亻 (single person radical).
Chinese pronouns are wonderfully simple. There are no grammatical cases (no difference between "I" and "me") and no verb conjugation.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Stroke Count | Example Word |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 我 | wǒ | I/me | 7 | 我们 (wǒ men) — we/us |
| 你 | nǐ | you (singular) | 7 | 你好 (nǐ hǎo) — hello |
| 他 | tā | he/him | 5 | 他们 (tā men) — they (male) |
| 她 | tā | she/her | 6 | 她们 (tā men) — they (female) |
| 它 | tā | it | 5 | 它们 (tā men) — they (things/animals) |
| 您 | nín | you (formal) | 11 | 您好 (nín hǎo) — hello (polite) |
Key Insight: 他, 她, and 它 are all pronounced tā. They are distinguished only in writing:
- 他 uses the person radical 亻 (for males)
- 她 uses the woman radical 女 (for females)
- 它 uses the roof radical 宀 (for things/animals)
To make any pronoun plural, simply add 们 (men):
| Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 我 (wǒ) | 我们 (wǒ men) | I → we |
| 你 (nǐ) | 你们 (nǐ men) | you → you (plural) |
| 他 (tā) | 他们 (tā men) | he → they |
| 她 (tā) | 她们 (tā men) | she → they (female) |
| 它 (tā) | 它们 (tā men) | it → they (things) |
Important: 们 is only used with pronouns and words for people (e.g., 孩子们 — children, 同学们 — classmates). You never use it with objects or animals in formal writing.
The character 的 (de) is one of the most frequently used characters in Chinese. It creates possessives (like 's in English):
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Stroke Count | Example Word |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 的 | de | possessive particle | 8 | 我的 (wǒ de) — my/mine |
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