Definitions
(pronoun)
I; me; my
Etymology
Pictograph of a weapon with a forked blade and long handle. The meaning "I; me" is a phonetic loan.
About
The character "我" originated as a pictograph representing a type of halberd or weapon with serrated blades. Its structural composition in both traditional and simplified forms consistently combines the component 手 (hand) on the left with 戈 (dagger-axe) on the right, illustrating a hand gripping a weapon. By the Zhou dynasty, this character had undergone a phonetic loan, ceasing to mean "weapon" and being borrowed exclusively to function as the first-person singular pronoun. This semantic shift from a concrete object to a self-referential term is an example of a common process in the language where characters are repurposed for their sound.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
我的名字是小明。
我喜欢吃苹果。
我每天去学校。
我有一个幸福的家庭。
我们一起学习中文。
因为下雨，我留在家里。
如果我有多一点时间，我会去旅行。
虽然我已经学了三年中文，但是我还需要更多练习。