Pronouns in Mandarin Chinese can act as a substitution for a noun, a verb, an adjective, a Chinese measurement words etc. Sometimes, it can also substitute a Chinese phrase or sentence.

In this post, we will learn what are the personal pronouns in Chinese. We will also learn how to use these personal pronouns and pronounce them. Before we talk about the personal pronouns in Chinese, let us look at examples on how pronouns in Chinese replace a noun, an adjective or a sentence in Chinese.

Substituting a noun

爸爸去上班了，他是乘地铁去的。

bàba qù shàng bān le, tā shì chéng dì tiě qù de.

Dad has gone to work, he took the subway to work.

personal pronoun

Personal pronoun 他 substituted the noun dad.

Replacing an adjective

她是一位了不起的老师，我要做一个那样的老师。

tā shì yī wèi liǎo bù qǐ de lǎo shī, wǒ yào zuò yī gè nà yàng de lǎo shī

She is an amazing teacher, I want to be such a teacher.

demonstrative pronoun

Demonstrative pronoun 那样 replaced the adjective 了不起.

Chinese pronoun substituting a Chinese phrase

这辆跑车上百万，这我可买不起。

zhè liàng pǎo chē shàng bǎi wàn, zhè wǒ kě mǎi bù qǐ.

This sports car cost millions, I can’t afford this.

demonstrative pronoun

Demonstrative pronoun 这 zhe replaced the sentence 这辆跑车上百万.

What are the personal pronouns in Chinese?

The most basic personal pronouns in Chinese are 我，你，她，他 and 它.

我 Wǒ is the first person pronoun referring to oneself or I in English.

你 nǐ is the second person pronoun meaning you in English.

她，他 and 它 tā are third person pronouns. The Chinese to English translation for these Chinese words are she, he and it.

Plural form of personal pronouns in Chinese

The plural from of personal pronouns in Chinese is by adding the Chinese word 们 men after the personal pronouns. For example, 我们，你们，他们，她们 or 它们.

Polite form of personal pronouns

The honorific form of the second person pronoun 你 is 您 nín. 您 is most commonly used in the Northern part of China. It is incorrect to add 们 after 您 to make it plural. Normally in written or spoken form, you can say 您二位 nín èr wèi or 您几位 nín jǐ wèi if there are more than 5 people.

您 is normally used when addressing people who are older or higher in status than you. For example, your friend’s mother or your customers etc.

Possessive Pronouns

When you want to show possessions in Chinese, you will need to add the Chinese word 的 de after personal pronouns. For example, 我的书 wǒ de shū ( my book), 你的家 nǐ de jiā (your house), 他的狗 tā de gǒu (his dog) etc.

But, when you are referring to people whom you are closely related to, or people you are familiar with, you can omit the Chinese word 的 in spoken Chinese. For example, 我爸爸 wǒ bà ba (my father), 他弟弟 tā dì dì (his younger brother), 你们公司 nǐ men gōng sī (your company).

Personal pronoun for self in Chinese

Personal pronoun 自己 Zì jǐ can mean oneself / the person speaking or it can also use to refer to the pronoun or noun before the personal pronoun 自己 known as reflexive pronouns in English. For example,

你自己的事，你自己搞定。Nǐ zì jǐ de shì, nǐ zì jǐ gǎo dìng.

You deal with your own problems yourself.

Personal Pronoun

都怪彼得自己，没有把约会地点记好。

Dōu guài bǐdé zì jǐ, méi yǒu bǎ yuē huì dì diǎn jì hǎo

Peter has himself to blame for not remembering the location of the appointment.

Peter himself

Personal pronoun 自己 can be used together with other personal pronouns such as 你，我，他 to mean 我自己， 你自己 or 他自己. However, it can also be placed after a thing. For example, 书包自己掉在地上 shū bāo zì jǐ diào zài dì shàng ( the bag fell to the ground by itself).

Personal pronouns 咱们 我们

我们 wǒ men

Personal pronouns 我们 generally refers to the speakers only and does not include the listeners. However, sometimes 我们 do include the listeners. In this case, you can replace 我们 with 咱们 zán men. Take note that 咱们 is informal and colloquial. On the other hand, if listeners are not included, we cannot replace 咱们 with 我们.

你好好休息吧，我们走了。

nǐ hǎo hǎo xiū xí ba, wǒ men zǒu le.

You have a good rest, we are leaving.

我们 refers to speaker only

你如果不相信我的话，我们一起去看。

Nǐ rú guǒ bù xiāng xìn wǒ de huà, wǒ men yī qǐ qù kàn.

If you don’t believe what I have said, let us go and see together.

我们 include both speaker and listener. Can replace with 咱们

咱们 zán men

咱们 is a spoken language. It is not used in formal settings and hardly used in written form as well. Personal pronoun 咱们 generally refers to both speaker and listener. Nevertheless, it sometimes can refer to either speaker or listener.

妈妈给咱们做了很多好吃的。

māmā gěi zán men zuò le hěn duō hào chī de.

Mom made lots of delicious food for us.

咱们 include both speaker and listener

咱们是个直性子，有什么说什么。

Zán men shì gè zhí xìng zi, yǒu shé me shuō shén me.

I am a straight forward person, I say what I have to say.

咱们 refers to the speaker

咱们别吃这个，妈妈买更好吃的。

zán men bié chī zhèi ge, māmā mǎi gèng hào chī de.

Let’s not eat this, mom will buy better ones.

咱们 refers to the listeners

Third Person Pronouns – 人家，别人，旁人

人家 rén jiā，别人 bié rén，旁人 páng rén can be referred to as third person pronouns in Chinese. They are all spoken language. Third person pronoun 旁人 páng rén is not commonly used.

人家 rén jiā

Use as a third person pronoun in Chinese, 人家 can refer to a personal noun or a noun phrase.

人家的东西我们不能随便乱动。

rén jiā de dōng xī wǒmen bù néng suí biàn luàn dòng.

We can’t mess around with other people’s things.

人家 as a noun phrase

我们不能只看人家的好，不看人家的坏。

wǒmen bù néng zhǐ kàn rén jiā de hǎo, bù kàn rén jiā de huài.

We can’t just see his/her good, and not see his/her bad.

人家 as a third person pronoun

人家 can sometimes refers to oneself. This is commonly used by young ladies to talk/act cute or acting lovey-dovey.

人家好久没买包包了。

Rén jiā hǎo jiǔ méi mǎi bāo bāo le.

I have not bought a bag for quite sometime.

人家 refer to oneself

别人 bié rén，旁人 páng rén

别人 and 旁人 can refer to other people as well.

现在家里只有我一个人，没有别人。

xiàn zài jiā lǐ zhǐ yǒu wǒ yī gè rén, méi yǒu bié rén.

I am the only one at home now, no one else.

别人 refers to other people.

他很害羞，没有旁人的时候才会出房门。

tā hěn hài xiū, méi yǒu páng rén de shí hòu cái huì chū fáng mén.

He is very shy, he will only come out form his room when there are no others around.

旁人 refers to other people.

大家 dà jiā ，大伙儿 dà huǒ er

大家 and 大伙儿 are plural form to include everyone. 大伙儿 can only be used as a spoken language.

明天早上七点，大家都到这里集合，我们一起出发。

míng tiān zǎo shang qī diǎn, dà jiā dōu dào zhè lǐ jí hé, wǒ men yī qǐ chū fā.

At seven o’clock tomorrow morning, everyone will gather here and we will set off together.

大家 includes speaker and listener

感谢大家能来参加今天的宴会。

 Gǎn xiè dà jiā néng lái cān jiā jīn tiān de yàn huì.

Thank you all for coming to today’s banquet.

大家 does not include the speaker

大家都很喜欢听您的歌。

Dà jiā dōu hěn xǐ huān tīng nín de gē.

Everyone likes listening to your song.

大家 does not include the listener

你看，大家在向我们招手。

Nǐ kàn, dà jiā zài xiàng wǒ men zhāo shǒu.

Look, everyone is waving to us.

大家 excludes both speaker and listener

我们大家一起动手把这些活做完吧。

wǒ men dà jiā yì qǐ dòng shǒu bà zhèi xiē huó zuò wán ba.

Let us work together to finish up these tasks.

Using 大家 after the plural personal pronouns such as 我们 and 你们.

If you find this post useful, do share it with your friends who are learning the Chinese language like you.

Video presentation of this post will be created soon. Do stay tune! Head to our youtube channel for other Chinese language videos.