她

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

她 (Kangxi radical 38, 女+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 女心木 (VPD), four-corner 4441₂, composition ⿰女也)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 255, character 5
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6046
• Dae Jaweon: page 518, character 5
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1029, character 2
• Unihan data for U+5979

Chinese

Glyph origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声) : semantic 女 (“female, woman”) + phonetic 也 (OC *laːlʔ).

Originally a variant of 姐 (jiě, “elder sister”). Later repurposed as a feminine third-person pronoun influenced by European languages, with the glyph being the result of replacing the 人 (rén, “person”) radical in 他 (tā) with 女 (“woman”). Linguist Liu Bannong is credited with coining this use around the 1910s (Bi, 2013).

Etymology 1

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Definitions

她

1. she, her

   她去了。  ―  Tā qù le.  ―  She went away.

   我認識她。／我认识她。  ―  Wǒ rènshi tā.  ―  I know her.

   • 教我如何不想她！ [Written Vernacular Chinese, trad. and simp.]

     From: 1920, Liu Bannong

     Jiào wǒ rúhé bù xiǎng tā!

     How can I stop missing her! (lit., "how can one make me not think of her!")

   • 那人說：「你所賜給我、與我同居的女人，她把那樹上的果子給我，我就吃了。」 [MSC, trad.]
     那人说：「你所赐给我、与我同居的女人，她把那树上的果子给我，我就吃了。」 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 新標點和合本 (Chinese Union Version with New Punctuation), 創世記 (Genesis) 3:12

     Nà rén shuō: “Nǐ suǒ cì gěi wǒ, yǔ wǒ tóngjū de nǚrén, tā bǎ nà shù shàng de guǒzi gěi wǒ, wǒ jiù chī le.”

     And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Usage notes

• Occasionally, 他 (tā) may be used for both genders.

See also

No major Chinese language distinguishes between “he”, “she” and “it” in spoken form, and Mandarin 他／她／牠／它／祂 (tā) is the only instance where such a distinction is made in written form. Thus see the table below for words for “she” in other varieties of Chinese.

• 妳／你 (nǐ, “(feminine) you”)

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

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Readings

• On (unclassified): ち (chi); じ (ji); しゃ (sha); た (ta); い (i)
• Kun: あざる (azaru, 她る)

Vietnamese

Han character

她: Hán Nôm readings: tha

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.