Expressing Personal Possession in Mandarin Chinese

From UniLang Wiki

Using the Chinese personal pronouns possessively is also very easy compared to most other languages, just append the determiner particle 的 (de) to the pronoun, as the following example will illustrate. The thing that is being determined will appear after this particle, and the thing that determines it (the possessive adjective/pronoun in western grammar) will appear in front of it:

  • 我的大学 (wǒ de dàxué) - my university
  • 你的大学 (nǐ de dàxué) - your university
  • 他的大学 (tā de dàxué) - his university
  • 我们的大学 (wǒmen de dàxué) - our university
  • 你们的大学 (nǐmen de dàxué) - your university
  • 他们的大学 (tāmen de dàxué) - their university

Independent constructions (possessive pronouns)

Such a construction can be transformed into a more independent construction, similar to the possessive pronouns like "mine", "yours", "ours" in english:

  • 这所大学是我的 (zhè suǒ dàxué shì wǒ de) - This university is mine
  • 这所大学是他们的 (zhè suǒ dàxué shì tāmen de) - This university is theirs

<< Chinese Grammar

Personal tools