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puppet_princess
puppet_princess
12 June 2009 @ 08:43 pm
中文 - Tā Tā Tā Tā Tā。。。  
To refer people and things in the third person the same word is used. The tone is the same... the syllable is the same.
The only difference is how it is written. All the characters for living things share the element on the right， while the left radical changes to change the meaning slightly. 亻 (or 人) meaning person or man, 女 meaning female, 牛 meaning cow or ox (thanks [info]dipropylene ), and 礻 meaning spirit.

他
(tā) - He/Him

她
(tā) - She/Her

它
(tā) - It （used for inanimate objects）

牠
（tā） - it (used for animals)

祂
（tā） - he, it (used for Gods/spirits)

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( 6 comments — Post a new comment )
ethidda[info]ethidda on June 13th, 2009 06:51 am (UTC)
Hmm... never used the last two before, lol. I'm sure that you'd use them for "proper" Chinese though.
puppet_princess[info]puppet_princess on June 13th, 2009 08:05 pm (UTC)
I can totally get not ever needing to use the last one but then what do you use to refer to pets and stuff if not the animal tā?
ethidda[info]ethidda on June 13th, 2009 10:22 pm (UTC)
For pets and stuff, I've always just used 它. They're not very strict about it. I mean, for traditional Chinese, you have 你 and 妳, but there's no such differentiation in simplified Chinese.
dipropylene: onew[info]dipropylene on June 13th, 2009 12:59 pm (UTC)
Isn't radical used for animals (牛) cow/ox? That's what it is in Japanese lol
ethidda[info]ethidda on June 13th, 2009 05:43 pm (UTC)
Yes, it is.
puppet_princess: sheepish[info]puppet_princess on June 13th, 2009 08:00 pm (UTC)
Ah, good to know. That makes a lot of sense too. lol
Thanks.