HSK 6 · Function Words

人家 rénjia “other people” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 人家 means

  1. other people
  2. someone else
  3. (referring to oneself) I, me
  4. sb else
  5. he, she or they
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • I, me (referring to oneself as “one” or “people”)

How to say 人家

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale人rén2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own家jianeutral tone, light and short

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

人家 in a sentence

  1. 不要对人家送的礼物挑三拣四，嫌东嫌西的。

    Búyào duì rénjia sòng de lǐwù tiāosānjiǎnsì, xián dōng xián xī de.

    Don’t be picky about the presents people give you.

    Sentence #806205 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 你为什么要骂人家？

    Nǐ wèishénme yào mà rénjia?

    Why do you have to scold people?

    Sentence #419956 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 人家 can also refer to the speaker, meaning “me”

    别把人家当傻瓜。

    Bié bǎ rénjia dàng shǎguā.

    Don’t take me for a fool.

    Sentence #2032129 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 人家 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 人 (rén) drawn as one shape
人rénperson; people

人 is a single shape of 2 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidA person walking, seen from the side: two legs.

The character 家 (jiā) with each of its parts in a different colour
家jiahome
  • 宀roof · miánMeaning part
  • 豕pig · shǐSound part

宀 hints at the meaning (roof); 豕 (shǐ) hints at the sound. Compare it with jia.

Memory aidA pig 豕 under a roof 宀: a home, a family.

How to write 人家

人 2 strokes · 家 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 人家

Words with 人

人rén · person家人jiārén · family member男人nánrén · man女人nǚrén · woman别人biéren · other people客人kèrén · guest有人yǒurén · someone人们rénmen · people大人dàren · adult老人lǎorén · old person

Words with 家

家jiā · home家人jiārén · family member大家dàjiā · everyone国家guójiā · country画家huàjiā · painter搬家bānjiā · to move house作家zuòjiā · writer家具jiājù · furniture家庭jiātíng · family家务jiāwù · household duties

More words: Function Words & Grammar

颇pō · rather恰巧qiàqiǎo · by chance起码qǐmǎ · at least仍旧réngjiù · still任意rènyì · at will日益rìyì · increasingly若干ruògān · a certain number啥shá · what (informal)

FAQs

人家 (rénjia) means “other people” or “someone else”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it rénjia: rén with a 2nd tone, then jia with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 人家 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type renjia with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 人家 from the suggestions. Typing renjia into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
人家 is an HSK 6 word in the 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.