Hokkien pronouns
Hokkien pronouns pose some difficulty to speakers of English due to their complexity. The Hokkien language use a variety of differing demonstrative and interrogative pronouns, and many of them are only with slightly different meanings.
| Pronoun | |
| Hàn-jī | 代名詞 |
|---|---|
| Pe̍h-ōe-jī | Tāi-bêng-sû |
| Tâi-lô | tāi-bîng-sû |
| Bbánpìng | dâibbíngsú |
| Hokkien grammar |
|---|
|
Basic personal pronouns
The plural personal pronouns tend to be nasalized forms of the singular ones.
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese character | vernacular / colloquial | literary | Chinese character | vernacular / colloquial | literary | |
| First person | 我 | góa | ngó͘ | 阮 | goán / gún (exclusive) | - |
| 俺 | án (possessive determiner) | - | 咱 | lán (inclusive) | - | |
| Second person | 汝 | lí | lú | 恁 | lín | - |
| Third person | 伊 | i | i | 𪜶 | in | - |
List of Hokkien personal pronouns
| Pe̍h-ōe-jī | Hàn-jī | Level of speech | Gender | Grammatical number | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – first person – | |||||
| chū-kí | 自己 | formal, written | neutral | singular | |
| góa | 我 | formal / informal | neutral | singular | |
| góa-lâng | 我儂 | informal | neutral | plural | 儂 (-lâng) is typically suffixed for plural in Southeast Asian Hokkien dialects. (see also list of pluralising suffixes, below) |
| goán | 阮 | formal / informal | neutral | plural | Exclusive |
| gún | 阮 | informal | females, rarely males | singular | 阮 (gún only, not goán) is typically used in Taiwanese Hokkien lyrics. |
| goán | 阮 | informal | neutral | singular | |
| ka-kī | 家己 | formal / informal | neutral | singular | |
| ka-kī-lâng | 家己儂 | informal | neutral | plural | 儂 (-lâng) is suffixed for plural. Here, it is not only used in Southeast Asian Hokkien dialects, but also in Chinese Hokkien and Taiwanese Hokkien. (see also list of pluralising suffixes, below) |
| kò-jîn | 個人 | formal | neutral | singular | |
| lán | 咱 | formal / informal | neutral | plural | Inclusive |
| lán-lâng | 咱儂 | informal | neutral | plural | 儂 (-lâng) is typically suffixed for plural in Southeast Asian Hokkien dialects. (see also list of pluralising suffixes, below) |
| lâng | 儂 | informal | neutral | singular | It originally means "person". |
| lín-chó͘-má | 恁祖媽 | very informal, rude | females | singular | It originally means "your grandmother". |
| lín-pē | 恁父 | very informal, rude | males | singular | It originally means "your father". |
| ngó͘ | 吾 / 我 | formal, written | neutral | singular | |
| sió-seng | 小生 | formal, written | males | singular | |
| – second person – | |||||
| chiok-hā | 足下 | formal, written | males | singular | |
| koh-hā | 閣下 | formal, written | males | singular | |
| kun | 君 | formal, written | males | singular | |
| lí | 汝 | formal / informal | neutral | singular | |
| lín | 恁 | formal / informal | neutral | plural | |
| lín-lâng | 恁儂 | informal | neutral | plural | 儂 (-lâng) is typically suffixed for plural in Southeast Asian Hokkien dialects. (see also list of pluralising suffixes, below) |
| – third person – | |||||
| i | 伊 | formal / informal | neutral | singular | |
| i-lâng | 伊儂 | informal | neutral | plural | 儂 (-lâng) is typically suffixed for plural in Southeast Asian Hokkien dialects. (see also list of pluralising suffixes, below) |
| in | 𪜶 | formal / informal | neutral | plural | |
| lâng | 儂 | informal | neutral | singular | It originally means "person". |
Archaic personal pronouns
| Pe̍h-ōe-jī | Hàn-jī | Level of speech | Gender | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| chhiap-sin | 妾身 | formal | females | I | It means "concubine" or "mistress". It is seldom used in modern societies. |
| pē-hā | 陛下 | formal, written | neutral, emperors, kings, queens | You | |
| tiān-hā | 殿下 | formal, written | neutral, princes, princesses | You |
Suffixes
Suffixes are added to pronouns to make them plural.
| Pe̍h-ōe-jī | Hàn-jī | Level of speech | Gender | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lâng | 儂 | informal | neutral |
|
儂 (-lâng) is typically suffixed for plural in Southeast Asian Hokkien dialects, but some of them like ka-kī-lâng (we) is also used in Chinese and Taiwanese Hokkien. |
Demonstrative and interrogative pronouns
Usually, Hokkien pronouns are prefixed with ch- for thing or things near the speaker, and h- for one or ones distant from the speaker.
| Pe̍h-ōe-jī | Hàn-jī | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| che | 此 / 即 / 這 | this thing (near the speaker) |
| he | 彼 / 許 | that thing (distant from the speaker) |
| tó-chi̍t-ê | 佗一个 | which thing(s)? |
| chit-ê | 此个 / 即个 / 這个 | this (near the speaker) |
| chia-ê | 遮个 | these (near the speaker) |
| hit-ê | 彼个 / 許个 | that (distant from the speaker) |
| hia-ê | 遐个 | those (distant from the speaker) |
| chia | 遮 | here (near the speaker) |
| hia | 遐 | there (distant from the speaker) |
| tó-ūi | 佗位 | where |
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gollark: Perhaps I should deploy ""orbital GPL abuse lasers”“””".
gollark: For example, have your thing do signature verification on the dynamic library bit.
See also
- Hokkien language
- Hokkien grammar
- Hokkien numerals
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