One of the distinctive features of the Chinese language is that nouns do not distinguish gender (male or female) or number (singular or plural). This means that words in Chinese express concepts directly.
For example, the word 老师 [lǎoshī] can mean "teacher", "teachers", whether male or female. It's not necessary to make any change in the word to indicate gender or number, as the context of the sentence will determine what it refers to. This considerably simplifies Chinese grammar compared to many other languages, where it is necessary to adjust the words to match gender and number.
| Examples | ||
|---|---|---|
| hanzi | pinyin | meaning |
| 他是我的老师 | tā shì wǒ de lǎoshī | He is my teacher |
| 他 | tā |
he (indicates that 老师 [lǎoshī] is male) |
| 是 | shì | is |
| 我的 | wǒ de | my |
| 老师 | lǎoshī | teacher |
| 她是我的老师 | tā shì wǒ de lǎoshī | She is my teacher |
| 她 | tā |
she (indicates that 老师 [lǎoshī] is female) |
| 是 | shì | is |
| 我的 | wǒ de | my |
| 老师 | lǎoshī | teacher |
| 他们/她们是我的老师 | tāmen shì wǒ de lǎoshī | They are my teachers |
| 他们/她们 | tāmen/tāmen |
they (们 indicates that 老师 [lǎoshī] is plural) |
| 是 | shì | are |
| 我的 | wǒ de | my |
| 老师 | lǎoshī | teachers |
As you can see, the word 老师 [lǎoshī] does not change, regardless of whether we are talking about a male or female teacher, or several male or female teachers. Chinese focuses on the central concept of the word, allowing the context to provide additional information about gender or quantity if necessary.
