Home	Pronunciation	Vocabulary	Conversation	Reading	Grammar	Fun Stuff
					Character	Links	User Guide

mandarin123.com >> grammar >> nouns | nouns

Nouns

Mandarin has three kinds of nouns: common nouns, pronouns, and proper nouns.

Nouns	Example
Common Nouns Concrete or abstract	( 书/書 : shu1 ) -- book, ( 意思 : yi4 si4 ) -- meaning
Pronouns	Singular ( 我 : wo3 ) -- I/me ( 你 : ni3 ) -- you ( 您 : nin2 ) -- you ( polite form ) ( 他/她/它: ta1 ) -- he/him, she/her, it ( 自己 : zi4 ji3 ) -- self ( reflexive pronoun )
	Plural ( 我们/我們 : wo3 men2 ) -- we/us ( 咱们/咱們 : zan2 men2 ) -- we/us ( includes speaker and addresses ) ( 你们/你們 : ni3 men2 ) -- you ( 他们/他們 她们/她們 它们/它們: ta1 men2 ) -- they, them
Proper Nouns	( 中国/中國 : zhong1 guo2 ) -- China ( 美国/美國 : mei3 guo2 ) -- American

Features of Mandarin Nouns

• Number:
  Common nouns are typically neutral with respect to number and have no separate singular or plural forms. Common nouns referring to people may be suffixed with the plural suffix ( 们/們 : men2 ) as in ( 孩子们/孩子們 : hai2 zi3 men ) -- children, ( 学生们/學生們 : xue2 sheng1 men ) -- students. Pronouns have distinct singular and plural forms showed in the table above.



• Gender:
  Common nouns are neutral with respect to gender and Mandarin does not distinguish 'masculine,' 'feminine,' and 'neuter' nouns. Pronouns are neutral in their spoken form, gender is distinguished in the third person in the contemporary written language.
  ( 他/她/它: ta1 ) -- he/him, she/her, it
  ( 他们/他們 她们/她們 它们/它們: ta1 men2 ) -- they, them
  


• Grammatical case:
  In Mandarin, there are no separate forms of nouns associated with their use as subject, possessive, object, etc. That means there is no pronouns equivalent to 'I/my/me,' etc.

Special uses of Pronouns

( 咱们/咱們 : zan2 men ) and ( 我們/我们 : wo3 men )
Mandarin spoken in and around Beijing makes a distinction between ( inclusive we : 咱们/咱們 ) and ( exlusive we : 我們/我们 ).

Inclusive we -- ( 咱们/咱們 : zan2 men )
咱们走吧！
我們走吧﹗
zan2 men zou3 ba!
Let's go!

Exclusive we -- ( 我們/我们 : wo3 men )
我们想跟你谈谈。
我們想跟你談談。
wo3 men xiang3 gen1 ni3 tan2 tan2.
We want to speak with you.

In general, ( 我們/我们 : wo3 men ) may be used for both sense of we.

( 自己 : zi4 ji3 ) -- self
Mandarin has a single reflexive pronoun, ( 自己 : zi4 ji3 ) -- self, which is unmarked for person or gender.
自己 : zi4 ji3 has the following uses.

It occurs as an object to mark identity of reference with the subject:
我不喜欢自己。
我不喜歡自己。
wo3 bu4 xi3 huan1 zi4 ji3.
I don't like myself.

It can follow a personal pronoun for emphasis, especiallly for contrastive emphasis.
这是我自己的事。
這是我自己的事。
zhe4 shi4 wo3 zi4 ji3 de shi4.
This is my (own) affair.


Next lesson : Nouns | Noun Phrases