我们
wǒmen · HSK 1
we
👥 我 (I) + 们 (plural suffix) = we; 们 pluralizes pronouns
我们 decomposes as 我 (I/me) plus 们, the suffix that turns a singular pronoun into a plural. Same pattern: 你们 (you all), 他们 (they). 们 only attaches to people, not objects.
我 — hand 手 (扌) + dagger-axe 戈
Originally a pictograph of a serrated weapon or polearm, used in oracle bone script. It was borrowed phonetically to write the first-person pronoun 'I/me,' and that meaning eventually replaced the original sense of the weapon.
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.
wǒ men · HSK 1
we
👥 我 (I) + 们 (plural marker) = we/us
们 is the standard plural suffix for pronouns and people-nouns: 我→我们 (we), 你→你们 (you all), 他→他们 (they). So 我们 literally stacks 'I' + plural to mean 'us'.
我 — hand 手 (扌) + dagger-axe 戈
Originally a pictograph of a serrated weapon or polearm, used in oracle bone script. It was borrowed phonetically to write the first-person pronoun 'I/me,' and that meaning eventually replaced the original sense of the weapon.
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.