他们
tāmen · HSK 1
they
👥 他 (he) + 们 (plural marker) = they
他 means he/him; 们 is the plural suffix that turns singular pronouns into plural ones (我 I → 我们 we, 你 you → 你们 you-all). So 他们 literally stacks 'he' + 'plural' to mean 'they'.
他 — person radical 亻 + 也
Originally written 它, depicting a snake, and used as a general third-person pronoun. The person radical 亻 was later added to specify a human referent, while 也 serves as the phonetic component giving the sound tā.
们 — person radical 亻 + 门 (mén, gate/phonetic)
们 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the person radical 亻 signals it relates to people, while 门 (mén) supplies the sound. It was created in later vernacular Chinese as a plural marker for pronouns and people nouns (我们, 你们, 朋友们), and has no ancient pictographic origin.
tā men · HSK 1
they
👥 他 (he) + 们 (plural suffix) = they/them
他 is the third-person pronoun (he/him); 们 is the plural marker used after pronouns and people-nouns (我们 we, 你们 you-all, 他们 they). Same pattern across all three.
他 — person radical 亻 + 也
Originally written 它, depicting a snake, and used as a general third-person pronoun. The person radical 亻 was later added to specify a human referent, while 也 serves as the phonetic component giving the sound tā.
们 — person radical 亻 + 门 (mén, gate/phonetic)
们 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the person radical 亻 signals it relates to people, while 门 (mén) supplies the sound. It was created in later vernacular Chinese as a plural marker for pronouns and people nouns (我们, 你们, 朋友们), and has no ancient pictographic origin.