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LeftValues / leftvalues.github.io

LeftValues, a leftist political quiz
https://leftvalues.github.io/
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On the Chinese translation of the word "they" #83

Open ChihSee-Hsie opened 2 years ago

ChihSee-Hsie commented 2 years ago

In Chinese grammar there are three genders of the plural form of the third-person pronoun, which are 「他们」 for musculine, 「她们」 for feminine and 「它们」 for neuter. Considering the word "they" in question 50, which is obviously neuter, the proper translation in Chinese is 「它们」 rather than 「他们」.

ZhuYiXuanNB commented 2 years ago

Here, the Chinese word "他们" refers to unknown. Does it mean "人民"（people）?

themerror commented 1 year ago

In China, we seldom use “它们” to refer to the unknown, because “它” is usually used to refer animals or objects (But there are some people promoting it). In general, we use “他们” to refer to those whose gender is unknown. This is a problem left over from history, you may search "Why 她 is invented" to know the reason. Nowadays, there are more and more people uses "Ta" (Pinyin of 他/她) instead, which is going popular.