他

tā
pronoun HSK 1 #8

Meanings

  1. 1 he
  2. 2 him

Examples

HSK 1
Tā shì wǒ de péngyou.
He is my friend.
HSK 1
Nǐ rènshi tā ma?
Do you know him?
HSK 2
Tā jīntiān yǒudiǎn bù shūfu.
He isn't feeling well today.

Tips

grammar
他 (he), 她 (she), and 它 (it) are all pronounced tā. They are only distinguished in writing - spoken Chinese does not differentiate gender in the third person pronoun.
history
The female 她 was created in the early 20th century by writer 刘半农 to translate 'she' from European languages. Before that, 他 was used for all genders.

Components

radical
亻 rén
person radical
Left radical 亻 is the side-form of 人 (person). It marks 他 as a person-pronoun: 'he' or generically 'that other one'. The person radical groups 他 with the pronoun-trio 他 (he), 她 (she, with 女), 它 (it, with 宀) - all built on different right-sides to distinguish gender and animacy.
phonetic
也 yě
also
Right phonetic 也 supplies the sound - yě shifted to tā through long-distance onset drift (originally 也 itself had a t-like onset in Old Chinese). 也 originally pictured a wash-basin or coiled snake. Same phonetic in 她 (she), 它 (it), 池 (pond), 地 (earth) - all sharing the historic onset that has split into modern t/ch/d.

Stroke Order

他 tā