Is 妳 used in Chinese?

[henrik]

Hi!

I'm new here, this is my second post, but maybe my first one did not drip through the initial approval process yet. Hopefully this one gets posted.

I was wondering whether '妳' was used in Mandarin. If not, in which language is it used? It is listed in the Unihan data base as one of the ~640 most frequently used characters (kFrequency=2), but Cedict does not yet seem to list it.

**Henrik

[necroflux]

Yeah, this is used in Chinese, it is simply the female form of "you". It has the same pronunciation, at least in Mandarin, as the male form of you so it's only dinstinguishable in written form.

[Kong Junrui]

When I asked my friends if they had ever seen that character, they said no, and when I asked my teacher, she said it wasn't used in Chinese, just the 你 form. Hmm.

[Ncao]

I don't think the mainland use it, but Taiwan and HK does. It's use when you're writing something to a female.

[chinesetools]

CEDICT is still a work in progress and still is missing quite a few words. If a word is missing, please help add it in by visiting http://www.mandarintools.com/submit.html

FYI, here are some of the most common words that people look for in the dictionary that aren't there (yet).

逆鳞

惜

唔

淑

近义词

夜曲

无奈

逆鱗

萧邦

薇

蕭邦

珊瑚海

催眠

咁

妳

企

樹枝

無奈

加油喔

咩

默契

物流

飘移

[henrik]

It's kind of funny that 大山 already has his entry in Cedict.

Anyway, thanks for your responses wrt. '妳'. I am currently programming an online 漢字 trainer and wanted to divide it into several levels, one method being by kFrequency of Unihan (others will probably be my chapters in popular books etc.). I think I will include '妳' since it's not very hard to learn (it's just like 他 and 她) and is listed to be quite frequent.

What about '祂' btw. Is there a 2nd person 漢字 of it?

[nipponman]

Sorry to go ot, but how is 唔 used in standard mandarin?

[chinesetools]

From what I can see 唔 is used in standard Mandarin as an interjection or exclamation expressing a desire for information. The dictionary gives "Eh?" as a translation. I guess you'd only see it if the text were transcribing idiomatic speech.

[chenpv]

CEDICT is still a work in progress and still is missing quite a few words.

Errr, what is CEDICT?

加油喔

This is not a word but a phrase which is made up of two words: '加油' and '喔' .

[Lu]

What about '祂' btw. Is there a 2nd person 漢字 of it?

祂 is used for god. I've never seen a 2nd person form for it.

There's also a ta1 for animals, with the cow-radical, but I can't type it here. (I bet the next person posting will be Skylee writing this ta1 )

[Quest]

Can it be me? 牠

You lose your bet.

[Lu]

Damn you're fast :-) I should've noticed Skylee's not online.

[chinesetools]

CEDICT is a project relying on user contributions to create a freely available Chinese-English dictionary. You can download it and learn more at http://www.mandarintools.com/cedict.html . It includes information on traditional/simplified characters and pinyin for each entry. You can search it at http://www.mandarintools.com/worddict.html

The list I give contains the most common (unfound) queries to the dictionary. Not all of them are words.

[nanyangguy]

The second form pronoun of God is "祢". Can "你" be used for a girl rather than "妳"? Can "你" be used to show both genders? I mean the usage is more general. It is because some dictionaries do not have "妳".

[Ncao]

Can "你" be used for a girl rather than "妳"? Can "你" be used to show both genders? I mean the usage is more general. It is because some dictionaries do not have "妳".

Yes 你 could be use for both genders. Mainland China doesn't use 妳 at all.

[nipponman]

Yes 你 could be use for both genders. Mainland China doesn't use 妳 at all.

Ah good, I despise 妳. I often confuse it for 嬭 thinking the former is a simplification of the latter.

[Jose]

The second form pronoun of God is "祢"

Are you sure about this? I have only found 祢 as the simplified character for 檷 (mí), which according to a dictionary means "one's deceased father". Can anyone confirm whether 祢 is really used as a second person pronoun for God?

Just to sum up, the system of second and third person pronouns in the singular, as I know it, is as follows:

2nd Person singular (English you)

Spoken: ni3

Traditional: 你 (general form), 妳 (specialised written form for women)

Simplified: 你

3rd. person singular (English he/she/it)

Spoken: ta1

Traditional: 他 (for men), 她 (for women), 它 (for things), 牠 (for animals), 祂 (for God)

Simplified: 他 (for men, and also for God), 她 (for women), 它 (for things and animals)

Note that 妳, 牠 and 祂 are not used in the standard simplified character set. That's why many Chinese people from the mainland are not familiar with them.

[nipponman]

Note that 妳, 牠 and 祂 are not used in the standard simplified character set. That's why many Chinese people from the mainland are not familiar with them.

Also, these three characters are recent creations from the last century , and therefore have yet to gain wide popularity.

[nanyangguy]

Are you sure about this? I have only found 祢 as the simplified character for 檷 (mí), which according to a dictionary means "one's deceased father". Can anyone confirm whether 祢 is really used as a second person pronoun for God?

Actually, 祢 can be pronounced as ni3 when it is used as pronoun. I think the word is mainly used in Taiwan, especially in churches. I have seen the word being used as pronoun.

[kimichen]

I am from Taiwan. Actually, not many people use 妳.

However, I will use it when I am concerned about sex (gender). I guess it is used for the same reason as businessperson/businesspeople. In China, maybe it's not a problem so no need to have 妳.

If you check a dictionary, 妳 is a regressive form of 嬭. And 嬭 means 'breast' (boob). Interesting.... I think 妳 is comprhensible for (Taiwan/Hong Kong/China). It is officially recognised in Taiwan (http://140.111.34.46/dict/). Not sure where to check this info in China.