牠 (tā) · it (pronoun specifically for animals)

Meanings

1 it (pronoun specifically for animals)
2 he/she/it (for animals)

Characters

牠

tā

it (for animals); the 牛 (cattle) radical signals animal reference

Examples

HSK 3

牠是一只聪明的狗，牠会开门。

Tā shì yī zhī cōngmíng de gǒu, tā huì kāimén.

It is a clever dog - it can open doors.

HSK 4

这只猫受伤了，我们要帮助牠。

Zhè zhī māo shòushāng le, wǒmen yào bāngzhù tā.

This cat is injured; we need to help it.

Tips

register

牠 is a Taiwan/classical variant of 它 used specifically for animals. In mainland simplified Chinese, 它 is used for all non-human referents (animals, objects). 牠 is rarely seen in mainland texts but is standard in traditional-character writing in Taiwan and Hong Kong when referring to animals.

Components

radical

牜 niú

ox; cattle

牜 is the left-side form of 牛 (ox). 牠 was coined in traditional script as the non-human counterpart of 他 (he) - used for animals and inanimate things, with the ox radical marking the animal sense. Now largely replaced by 它 in simplified writing.

phonetic

也 yě

also; final particle

也 (yě) supplies the sound, drifted to tā. The choice mirrors 他 (person + 也) and 她 (woman + 也) - a tidy paradigm where 也 is the constant pronoun phonetic and the radical fixes the referent type. Same series: 地, 池, 弛.