Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar

nOunS

5.2

Singular Plural

First person 我 wǒ 我们/我們 wǒmen

I/me we/us (exclusive or neutral)

咱们/咱們 zánmen

we (inclusive)

Second person 你 nǐ (masculine or neutral) 你們 nǐmen

妳 nǐ (feminine) you

you

Third person 他 tā (masculine or neutral) 他们/他們 tāmen

她 tā (feminine) (masculine or non-specific for gender)

它/牠 tā (non-human or inanimate)

he/she/it

她们/她們 tāmen (feminine)

they/them

Reflexive 自己 zìjǐ

self

5.2.1 The reflexive pronoun 自己 zìjH ‘self’

Mandarin has only one reflexive pronoun, and it is not marked for person or gender. To indicate

person, the reflexive may optionally be preceded by the relevant personal pronoun.

我自己 我们自己/我們自己

wǒ zìjǐ wǒmen zìjǐ

myself ourselves

你自己 你们自己/你們自己

nǐ zìjǐ nǐmen zìjǐ

yourself yourselves

他自己/她自己 他们自己/他們自己

tā zìjǐ tāmen zìjǐ

himself, herself themselves

自己 zìjǐ ‘self’ is also used without a personal pronoun. When it occurs in object position, it

is understood to refer to the subject:

你在中国一定得把自己照顾好。

你在中國一定得把自己照顧好。

Nǐ zài Zhōngguó yīdìng děi bǎ zìjǐ zhàogù hǎo.

When you are in China you certainly should take good care of yourself.

没有人不喜欢自己的。

沒有人不喜歡自己的。

Méi yǒu rén bù xǐhuan zìjǐ de.

No one doesn’t like him / herself.

自己 zìjǐ ‘self ’ may be used to indicate contrast with another noun phrase or pronoun:

我希望他们结婚，可是我自己不想结婚。

我希望他們結婚，可是我自己不想結婚。

Wǒ xīwàng tāmen jiéhūn, kěshì wǒ zìjǐ bù xiǎng jiéhūn.

I hope they will get married, but I myself don’t plan to get married.

这是我自己的事。你不用管。

這是我自己的事。你不用管。

Zhè shì wǒ zìjǐ de shì. Nǐ bù yòng guǎn.

This is my affair. You need not be concerned with it.