ZHIZHI 知止 · LEARN CHINESE DAILY

(plural marker for people)

men
5 strokes · 亻(person radical) + 门 (door, phonetic) · HSK 1

Where 们 comes from

们 = 亻(person) + 门 (door, giving the sound 'men'). The person radical signals it attaches to people. It's a grammatical suffix, not a word you use alone.

们 in Chinese culture

们 is the closest Chinese gets to a plural. Add it to a pronoun and you pluralize: 我 (I) → 我们 (we), 你 (you) → 你们 (you all), 他 (he) → 他们 (they). It's toneless (men, light and quick). Chinese nouns otherwise don't change for plural — 书 means 'book' or 'books', context decides — so 们 is special, reserved mostly for people.

Example

我们 wǒmen — we / us

我们是朋友。
Wǒmen shì péngyou.
We are friends.

How to remember it

A person (亻) at the door (门) — and everyone else too: the PLURAL marker.

们 only pluralizes people, not things. 三本书 is 'three books' (no 们). But 老师们 = 'teachers', 朋友们 = 'friends'. Pronounced light and toneless: men.

Same sound, different tones

Words unlocked by 们

我们 wǒmen
we / us
你们 nǐmen
you (plural)
他们 tāmen
they
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