pron.
they; them (referring to females)
她们
Common Usage & Traps
- 她们说 — they (female) say / said
- 她们是 — they (female) are
- 她们都 — all of them (female)
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小明和小红，她们是同事。小明和小红，他们是同事。One man in the group is enough to flip the pronoun back to the male default 他们.
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我家两只猫，她们很胖。我家两只猫，它们很胖。她们 is reserved for female people. Female pets and objects take 它们.
A group has nine women and one man. Do you call them 她们 or 他们?
One man in the room flips 她们 back to 他们.
Chinese defaults to the male form whenever a group is not 100% female. Nine women plus one man still gets 他们, because one man breaks the all-female rule. This is not about who is the majority. It is a simple switch: any male present, or gender unknown, means 他们. Only a group that is entirely women earns 她们. “她们说小苹果非常好吃。” (They said the small apples were really delicious.) ── [《很贵的苹果》](/read/buying-expensive-apples#s5)
| Dimension | Natural | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Group is all women | 她们 | 他们 (careful writers notice) |
| Women plus even one man | 他们 | 她们 |
| Gender unknown or mixed | 他们 | 她们 |
Do 她们 and 他们 actually sound different when spoken?
Nope, 她, 他, and 它 all come out as tā.
All three pronouns share the exact same sound, tā. So 她们, 他们, and 它们 are audio twins in speech. The gender only exists on the page. This is why a voice note saying tāmen tells you nothing, and you must lean on context to know who is meant. Written Chinese carries the difference; spoken Chinese drops it.
| Dimension | Natural | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Spoken | tāmen for all three | waiting for a sound clue |
| Written | 她们 / 他们 / 它们 | assuming speech matches script |
| What shows gender | the character on the page | the audio you hear |
You have three female cats. Do you call them 她们?
No, 她们 is only for female people, never your pets.
她们 stops at humans. Female cats, dogs, and laptops all take 它 or 它们, no matter how much you love them. Some native speakers playfully use 她 for a pet in cute captions, but that is a joke, not the standard. In ordinary writing, animals and things stay with 它.
| Dimension | Natural | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Three women | 她们 | 它们 |
| Three cats or three phones | 它们 | 她们 |
| One beloved pet, playful caption | 她 (rare, stylized) | 她们 as normal usage |
Featured in Story Deep Dive
Follow how this word unfolds across the narrative arc of this graded story.
This short, simple story follows a shopper's trip to the supermarket to buy apples. You'll learn useful vocabulary for shopping, prices, and comparing things.
- Scene #1
她们 说小苹果非常好吃。
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