她 (tā): she

Meanings

1 she
2 her

Characters

她

tā

she; her

Female radical 女 on the left — refers to a woman.

Examples

她是我的朋友。

Tā shì wǒ de péngyou.

She is my friend.

我喜欢她。

Wǒ xǐhuan tā.

I like her.

她很漂亮。

Tā hěn piàoliang.

She is very pretty.

Tips

history

她 was created in 1920 by linguist 刘半农 to distinguish 'she' from 'he' (他) in writing. Before that, 他 was used for all genders. All three — 他, 她, 它 — are pronounced the same: tā.

Components

radical

女 nǚ

woman; female

Female radical on the left — marks 她 as referring to a woman. The radical is the only thing that distinguishes 她 'she' from 他 'he' (亻 person) and 它 'it' (宀 roof) in writing; all three are pronounced tā. 她 was coined in 1920 by linguist 刘半农 specifically for translating Western pronouns.

phonetic

也 yě

also (here phonetic)

Right component 也 supplies the sound (yě → tā, drifted significantly in the modern reading). Pure phonetic loan, kept identical to 他 and 它 to preserve the homophonic third-person family. The 'also' meaning of 也 contributes nothing semantically here.