Hokkien pronouns


Hokkien pronouns pose some difficulty to speakers of English due to their complexity. The Hokkien language use a variety of differing demonstrative and interrogative pronouns, and many of them are only with slightly different meanings.

Basic personal pronouns

The plural personal pronouns tend to be nasalized forms of the singular ones.

Suffixes

Suffixes are added to pronouns to make them plural.
Pe̍h-ōe-jīHàn-jīLevel of speechGenderExamplesNotes
lânginformalneutral
  • 我儂, góa-lâng
  • 家己儂, ka-kī-lâng
  • 咱儂, lán-lâng
  • 恁儂, lín-lâng
  • 伊儂, i-lâng
儂 is typically suffixed for plural in Southeast Asian Hokkien dialects,
but some of them like ka-kī-lâng is also used in Chinese and Taiwanese Hokkien.

Demonstrative and interrogative pronouns

Usually, Hokkien pronouns are prefixed with ch- for thing or things near the speaker, and h- for one or ones distant from the speaker.
Pe̍h-ōe-jīHàn-jīMeaning
che此 / 即 / 這this thing
he彼 / 許that thing
tó-chi̍t-ê佗一个which thing?
chit-ê此个 / 即个 / 這个this
chia-ê遮个these
hit-ê彼个 / 許个that
hia-ê遐个those
chiahere
hiathere
tó-ūi佗位where