About
The character "他" has its origins as a general demonstrative meaning "other" or "another", derived from an early form that combined the human radical (亻) with the component "也", which likely served a phonetic function but is also linked to the ancient character "它", initially representing a snake and later used to indicate "otherness". Over centuries, its meaning narrowed significantly from this broad sense of "other" to become the standard, generic third-person pronoun for a human male, essentially "he" or "him". This specialization in function was part of the development of a distinct pronominal system in written Chinese, where the human radical permanently anchored its reference to a person. Its traditional form is identical to its simplified version, and its established role as the default human pronoun later prompted the deliberate creation of the distinct characters "她" for "she" and "它" for "it" to introduce gender and animate distinction, leaving "他" with its specific masculine meaning.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
他喜欢苹果。
他经常跑步。
他今天去学校。
他应该学习。
他和我都是老师。
他说他想回家。
他高兴地接受了礼物。
他虽然很忙，但还是抽时间帮助别人。