A Character Study of 愛 ài Love With the Chinese Pronouns

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Published on Monday, 05 March 2012 11:40

By Jodi Yim James, Staff Writer

愛 ài is the Chinese character for love.

This character is assembled from top to bottom, in four steps:

 

 

Phrases with 愛ài include:

 

In these phrases, with the character to eat 吃chī, notice the mouth on the left. On the right is a hand or utensil above, scooping up noodles into the mouth.  With the character for person, 人 ren, notice a man walking upright on two legs.

 

Sentences with 愛 ài include:

 

Note that (she or her 她 tā) and (he or him 他 tā) are pronounced exactly the same as tā.  The one pronunciation is used for two separate words; one tā means she and the other tā means he. She or her 她 tā has the radical 女 (girl) on the left.  女 denotes someone female. He or him 他 tā has the radical 人 (man) on the left.

It is for this reason that sometimes Chinese native speakers learning English will confuse the pronouns he and she in speaking.

 

More sentences with 愛 ài include

 

By adding the character 们 men to the pronoun (他 tā = he), (我 wǒ = I), or (你 nǐ = you), we get the plural pronoun 他 们 tā men for they,  我们 wǒ men for we or 你 们nǐ men for you (plural).

 

Using the word 愛 ài or love, all of the Chinese pronouns for people can be practiced and learned.