HSK 3.0 Level 1 · Particles

们 men “plural marker for pronouns” in Chinese

Traditional 們

What 们 means

  1. plural marker for pronouns, and nouns referring to individuals

How to say 们

  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own们menneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

们 in a sentence

  1. 学生们在教室里。

    Xuéshengmen zài jiàoshì lǐ.

    The students are in the classroom.

    Sentence #2778803 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 孩子们，起床了！

    Háizimen, qǐchuáng le!

    Children, time to get up!

    Sentence #7056732 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你们是在哪里认识的？

    Nǐmen shì zài nǎlǐ rènshi de?

    Where did you two meet?

    Sentence #2737455 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 们 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 们 (men) with each of its parts in a different colour
们menplural marker for pronouns
  • 亻person form of 人 · rénMeaning part
  • 门gate · ménSound part

亻 hints at the meaning (person); 门 (mén) hints at the sound. Compare it with men.

How to write 们

们 5 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

们 (men) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 们 (men). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 们

Words with 们

我们wǒmen · we你们nǐmen · you (plural)他们tāmen · they它们tāmen · they (for inanimate objects)她们tāmen · they人们rénmen · people咱们zánmen · we

More words: Particles & Function Words

不要bùyào · don’t!一些yīxiē · some但dàn · but快要kuàiyào · about to那么nàme · like that那样nàyàng · that kind这么zhème · so much这样zhèyàng · this kind of

FAQs

们 (men) means “plural marker for pronouns, and nouns referring to individuals”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word.
Say it men: men with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 们 is written 們. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type men with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 们 from the suggestions. Typing men into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
们 is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 1 word list. It is not on the older HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.