Pronoun

Mandarin has first, second, and third person pronouns and has a
reflexive pronoun.
Mandarin pronouns have the following properties:

• Pronouns are not distinguished in terms of grammatical role. The

same pronouns are used for subject, object, possession, etc.
• Pronouns have singular and plural forms. The suffix -们/們 men is
added to the singular form to make it the plural form.
• Gender is not reflected in the spoken language. The written
language has distinctions for the second and third person pronouns,
though only the third person gender distinction is commonly used.
Singular Plural
First person 我wo 我们/我們women
I/me we/us (exclusive or neutral)
咱们/咱們zanmen we (inclusive)

Second person 你 nl (masculine or neutral) 你們nlmen

妳 nl (feminine) you you

Third person 他 ta (masculine or neutral) 他们/他們tamen

她 tp (feminine) (masculine or non-specific
它/牠 ta (non-human for gender)
or inanimate) 她们/她們 tamen (feminine)
they/them
Reflexive
自己zijl self

The reflexive pronoun 自己 zijT ‘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 我们自己/我們自己
relevant women zijl
personal ourselves
pronoun.
我自己
wo zijl myself
你自己 你们自己/你們自己
nl zijl nlmen zijl
yourself yourselves
 他自己/她自己 他们自己/他們自己
ta zijl tamen zijl
himself, herself themselv
es

自己 zijl ‘self' is also used without a personal pronoun. When it occurs

in object position, it is understood to refer to the subject:
您在中国一定得把自己照顾好。
您在中國一定得把自己照顧好。
Ni zai Zhongguo ylding dei ba ziji zhaogu hao.
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。
Mei you re^n bu xihuan ziji de.
No one doesn't like him/herself.
自己 ziji ‘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。
Wo xTwang tamen jiehun, keshi wo ziji bu xiang jiehun.
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。
Zhe shi wo ziji de shi. Ni bu yong guan.
This is my affair. You need not be concerned with it.

The inclusive pronoun 咱们/咱們 zanmen ‘we’

The inclusive pronoun 口自们/咱們 zanmen ‘we' is used in northern
dialects of Mandarin. 口自们/咱們 zanmen ‘we' refers to the speaker,
other people associated with the speaker, and to the addressee. When
a speaker uses 咱们/ 咱們 zanmen ‘we' as the subject, he or she
includes you in the remarks.
咱们都是自己人。
咱們都是自己人。
Zanmen dou shi ziji ren.
We are all family. (We, including you, are all one family.)
‘Inclusive' 口自们/咱們 zanmen contrasts with an ‘exclusive' use of ‘we'
that is associated with 我们/我們 women. In the exclusive sense,我们/
我們 women refers to the speaker and others associated with the
speaker but not to the addressee.
 我们欢迎你。
我們歡迎你。
Women huanying ni.
We welcome you.
口自们/咱們 zanmen only has the inclusive meaning. In addition, 口自们
/咱們 zanmen is only used as subject, and never as object.
我们/我們 women can have either inclusive or exclusive meaning and it
occurs as subject and object. It is much more commonly used than 口
自们/咱們 zanmen.
 Modification of pronouns
Pronouns represent an entire noun phrase. Therefore, in general, they
are not further modified. However, Mandarin has a small number of
literary expressions in which the pronoun is modified:
可怜的我 可憐的我
kelian de wo poor me
美丽的她 美麗的她
meili de ta pretty her
善良的高老师 善良的高
老師
shanliang de Gao laoshT
good hearted professor Gao

Possession involving pronouns

Mandarin does not have possessive pronouns. The meaning of
possessive pronouns is conveyed by pronoun + K de.
我的朋友
wo de pengyou my friend
他的小狗
ta de xiaogou his puppy

Here is a table showing the Mandarin equivalent of English possessive

pronouns.
Singular Plural
my 我的 our 我们自勺/我們的
women de
wo de 咱们的/咱們的
zanmen de
your 你的 your 你们自W你們的
ni de nimen de
his (hers) 他的（她的） their 他们的/他們的
ta de tamen de
Reflexive

ones 自己的
ziji de
Interrogative 谁的？/誰的？
whose? shei de?