们 (men): plural marker

们 (men) is a Chinese character meaning “plural marker.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亻 (semantic) and 门 (phonetic). It ranks #13 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 们 people. Its radical form 亻 (person) appears in many related characters such as 人 (rén, person), 什 (shén, what), 今 (jīn, now).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. plural marker

Etymology & Origin

们

pictophoneticpeople

Decomposition: ⿰亻门 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

Practice writing 们 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 们

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
我们pronounwǒ menwe1
他们pronountā menthey1
你们pronounnǐ menyou (plural)1
它们pronountā menthey1
她们pronountā menthey1
咱们pronounzán menwe or us (including both the speaker and the person(s) spoken to)3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
人们nounrén menpeople
哥们noungē men(coll.) dude
哥们儿noungē men rerhua form of 哥們|哥们
爷们nounyé menmenfolk (collective term for men of different generations)
娘儿们nounniáng r men(dialect) woman
俺们ǎn men(dialect) we
图们proper-nountú ménsee 圖們市|图们市
孩子们hái zi menchildren
亲们qīn mendarlings
亚们proper-nounyà menAmon (son of Manasseh)
阿们ā men(loanword) amen
图们市tú mén shìTumen, a county-level city in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture 延邊朝鮮族自治州|延边朝鲜族自治州[Yan2 bian1 Chao2 xian3 zu2 Zi4 z...
姐们儿jiě men rerhua form of 姐們|姐们
姐们jiě men(coll.) close female friend
爷们儿nounyé men rerhua variant of 爺們|爷们
26
Total compounds
0
As first character
77
As last character
23
As middle character

们 appears in 26 compound words: 0 as the first character, 77 as the last, and 23 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 们 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

我wǒ
0.571113,987 co-occurrences
他tā
0.547337,288 co-occurrences
它tā
0.48693,646 co-occurrences
让ràng
0.47111,820 co-occurrences
认rèn
0.45019,064 co-occurrences
将jiāng
0.42124,752 co-occurrences
你nǐ
0.42012,322 co-occurrences
对duì
0.41629,708 co-occurrences
咱zán
0.406585 co-occurrences
给gěi
0.3968,442 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

铁哥们儿tiě gē men rHSK 2+

erhua variant of 鐵哥們|铁哥们

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我们团队有十个人,分别负责不同的模块开发。

Wǒmen tuánduì yǒu shí gè rén, fēnbié fùzé bùtóng de mókuài kāifā.

Our team has ten people, each responsible for different module development.

百度新闻Feb 2026

不到30小时连夺3金!他们的每一滴热泪,都写着“值..

bù dào 3 0 xiǎo shí lián duó 3 jīn ! tā men de měi yī dī rè lèi , dōu xiě zhe zhí . .

Win 3 gold medals in less than 30 hours! Every tear they shed was written "Value:

百度新闻Feb 2026

在这个时代,他们还在用手一点点“搓”出光丨新春走基..

zài zhè gě shí dài , tā men hái zài yòng shǒu yī diǎn diǎn cuō chū guāng 丨 xīn chūn zǒu jī . .

In this era, they are still using their hands to rub out the light 丨新春走基...

百度新闻Feb 2026

「新春走基层」他们不是不恋家,只是西沙这扇“南天门..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng tā men bù shì bù liàn jiā , zhī shì xī shā zhè shān nán tiān mén . .

New Year's Journey to the grassroots level" It's not that they don't love their home, but the "Southern Heavenly Gate" of Xisha...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...场外音丨金雷:中国队冬奥“现原形”?让我们..

. . . chǎng wài yīn 丨 jīn léi zhōng guó duì dōng ào xiàn yuán xíng ? ràng wǒ men . .

... The Chinese team's winter Olympics are a big deal, but it's not a big deal for the Chinese. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that.

百度新闻Feb 2026

动物们吃上定制“年夜饭”

dòng wù men chī shǎng dìng zhì nián yè fàn

Animals have customized "New Year's Eve dinner"

Tatoeba

我回来了!啊?有人来看我们吗?

Wǒ huílai le! ǎ? Yǒu rén lái kàn wǒmen ma?

I'm back! Oh? Have we got a guest?

Tatoeba

他们都是一样的吗?

Tāmen dōu shì yīyàng de ma?

Are they all the same?

Tatoeba

我们什么时候到达?

Wǒmen shénmeshíhou dàodá?

When do we arrive?

Tatoeba

我们今晚出去吃怎么样?

Wǒmen jīnwǎn chūqù chī zěnmeyàng?

How about dining out tonight?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 亻 (people) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced men

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 们 (men) mean in Chinese?
们 (men) primarily means "plural marker." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #13 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 们 and 问?
们 (men) and 问 (wèn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 亻 vs 口 (same 门 component).
How many strokes does 们 have?
们 is written with 5 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 们?
The radical associated with 们 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 们?
们 is composed of: 亻 (semantic), 门 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻门 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 们?
Common words with 们 include: 我们 (wǒ men, "we"); 他们 (tā men, "they"); 你们 (nǐ men, "you (plural)"); 它们 (tā men, "they"); 她们 (tā men, "they"). There are over 26 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 们 (men)?
Several characters share the pronunciation men: 闷 (stuffy), 门 (door, gate). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 们 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 们 and the traditional form is 們.

Practice writing 们 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.