她

她 U+5979, 她 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5979 ← 奸 [U+5978] CJK Unified Ideographs 奺 → [U+597A]

Stroke order

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

• 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

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, in turn replacing a precursor form of 他_女 in print (Bi, 2013).

For pronunciation and definitions of 她 – see 姐 (“elder sister; woman; lady; madame; etc.”). (This character is a variant form of 姐).

trad.		她
simp. #		她

她

1. she, her [from 1910s]

   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! [Pinyin]

     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.” [Pinyin]

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

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

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.

Standard Mandarin Chinese personal pronouns
Person		Singular	Plural
1st	—	我 (wǒ)	我們／我们 (wǒmen)
	inclusive		咱們／咱们 (zánmen)
2nd	male/indefinite	你 (nǐ)	你們／你们 (nǐmen)
	female	妳／你 (nǐ)	妳們／你们 (nǐmen)
	deity	祢 (nǐ)	祢們／祢们 (nǐmen)
	polite	您 (nín)	你們／你们 (nǐmen) 您們／您们 (nínmen)
3rd	male/indefinite	他 (tā)	他們／他们 (tāmen)
	female	她 (tā)	她們／她们 (tāmen)
	deity	祂 (tā)	祂們／祂们 (tāmen)
	animal	牠／它 (tā)	牠們／它们 (tāmen)
	inanimate	它 (tā)	它們／它们 (tāmen)

• 妳／你 (nǐ, “(feminine) you”)

(Hyōgai kanji)

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

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

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}}.