我

我 U+6211, 我 ← 成[U+6210] CJK Unified Ideographs 戒 →[U+6212] Stroke order Stroke order Stroke order(Taiwan)

我 (Kangxi radical 62, 戈+3, 7 strokes, Cangjie input 竹手戈 (HQI), four-corner 23550, composition ⿻𠂌戈)

• 俄, 哦, 娥, 峨, 㧴, 涐, 珴, 䄉, 皒, 睋, 硪, 蛾, 誐, 䞲, 鋨 (锇), 餓 (饿), 騀, 䳘
• 鵝 (鹅), 䖸, 鵞, 峩, 莪, 義, 䳗

• 𛀜 (Hentaigana)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 412, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 11545
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1401, character 2
• Unihan data for U+6211

• 我 on Wikidata.Wikidata

simp. and trad. 我 alternative forms

A pictogram (象形) of a trident-like weapon or tool (note the oracle bone script form 𢦐). Jao & Zeng (1985, pp. 289-290) conjecture about its similarity to a kind of three-bladed polearm found at archaeological sites. Cf. 戈 (“polearm”), which is the same weapon but with a single blade instead of three. It was already borrowed for sound as an instance of jiajie (假借) for the pronoun 我 (OC *ŋaːlʔ, “I”) since the oracle bone script.

Guo Moruo considers it to be the original character for 錡 (OC *ɡral, “a kind of war axe with three blades or teeth”).

Folk etymology considers it to be an ideograph of a hand (手) holding a weapon (戈) to protect oneself.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ŋa. Cognate with 吾 (OC *ŋaː), Burmese ငါ (nga, “I”), Hakka 𠊎 (ngài). The expected Mandarin pronunciation is ě (now only found in a few Northern dialects); wǒ is “a col[loquial] archaism” (Schuessler, 2007).

Schuessler further decomposes 我 *ŋâiʔ (his reconstruction) into *ŋa + *i, which he terms an “independent suffix” which also appears in some Tibeto-Burman cognates of this pronoun. DeLancey and Benedict believe that the *-i here was an “information structure marker”. But given how Sagart believes 我 was originally plural (Sagart 1999:142) and DeLancey discovered that first-person plural compounds of *ŋa (“I”) and *i (“we”) exist in e.g. Raji and Stau, it is also possible that the -iʔ element is actually *i (“we”) fused onto the singular.

我

1. I; me; my 認識你我真高興。 [MSC, trad.]认识你我真高兴。 [MSC, simp.]Rènshí nǐ wǒ zhēn gāoxìng. [Pinyin]I am pleased to meet you. 我哥哥每日返工都遲到。 [Cantonese, trad.]我哥哥每日返工都迟到。 [Cantonese, simp.]ngo5 go1-4 go1 mui5 jat6 faan1 gung1 dou1 ci4 dou3. [Jyutping]My brother is late for work every day. 今朝公司有事體，我先走了。 [Shanghainese, trad.]今朝公司有事体，我先走了。 [Shanghainese, simp.]1cin-tsau 1kon-sy 6yeu 6zy-thi1; 6ngu 1shi 5tseu-leq [Wugniu]Today I have things to do in the company, (so) I’m leaving early (literally, “ahead”).
2. (literary, formal or dialectal) we; us; our 我國／我国 ― wǒguó ― our country 我市 ― wǒshì ― our city
3. (obsolete) to stubbornly hold to one’s own opinion
4. (obsolete) to kill
5. (obsolete) tilted
6. a surname

Others:

• Wutunhua: nga, ngu
• → Betawi: gua (via Min Nan)
  • → Indonesian: gua, gue
• → Malay: gua (via Min Nan)
• → Thai: อั๊ว (úua)
• → Vietnamese: ngộ

• “我”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎[2], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014-
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A01473
• “我”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2026.

(Sixth grade kyōiku kanji)

• Go-on: が (ga, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: が (ga, Jōyō)
• Kun: わ (wa, 我, Jōyō)、われ (ware, 我, Jōyō)

• 我(が)楽(らく)多(た) (garakuta)
• 怪我(けが) (kega)

Kanji in this term 我 われGrade: 6 kun’yomi Alternative spellings 吾予 (rare)余 (rare)

From Old Japanese,[1] as the long form of 我 (wa) below.

Compound of 我 (wa, see below) +‎ れ (-re, nominalizing suffix).

• IPA(key): [β̞a̠ɾe̞]
• (Tokyo) われ [wáꜜrè] (Atamadaka – [1])[2][3]

我(われ) • (ware)

1. first person singular pronoun: I, me, oneself
2. (usually vulgar) second person singular pronoun: you

• In modern Japanese, most often encountered in the plural forms 我等 (warera) and 我々 (wareware, “we, us”).

Kanji in this term 我 わGrade: 6 kun’yomi Alternative spelling 吾

From Old Japanese 我 (wa).[1]

• IPA(key): [β̞a̠]
• (Tokyo) わ [wáꜜ] (Atamadaka – [1])[2]

我(わ) • (wa)

1. (obsolete or dialect) first-person personal pronoun: I, me
   • 棟方志功 わだばゴッホになるwa daba gohho ni naru(Aomori) I’ll be a Gogh

• In modern Japanese, most often encountered in fossilized phrases in combination with the Old Japanese possessive particle が (ga), such as 我が儘 (wagamama, “selfish; selfishness”, literally “just as I like”) or 我が国 (wagakuni, “my country, my homeland → Japan”).

• 我(わ)が (waga)
• 私(わたくし) (watakushi)

Kanji in this term 我 わ(が)Grade: 6 kun’yomi For pronunciation and definitions of 我 – see the following entry. 【我わが】 [adnominal] (archaic, now literary) my [adnominal] (archaic, now literary) our (This term, 我, is an alternative spelling of the above term.) Kanji in this term 我 あGrade: 6 kun’yomi For pronunciation and definitions of 我 – see the following entry. 【あ】 [pronoun] (obsolete) first-person personal pronoun: I, me (This term, 我, is an alternative spelling of the above term.) Kanji in this term 我 あれGrade: 6 kun’yomi For pronunciation and definitions of 我 – see the following entry. 【あれ】 [pronoun] (obsolete) first-person personal pronoun: I, me (This term, 我, is an alternative spelling of the above term.) Kanji in this term 我 がGrade: 6 on’yomi

From Middle Chinese 我 (MC ngaX).

The Buddhist senses are a translation of Sanskrit आत्मन् (ātman, “self”).

• IPA(key): [ɡa̠]
• (Tokyo) が [gà] (Heiban – [0])[2][3]

我(が) • (ga)

1. the ego, self
2. self-righteousness
3. (Buddhism) obstinacy Antonym: 無我 (muga)
4. (Hinduism) atman Synonym: アートマン (ātoman)

我(が) • (ga)

1. self, oneself, myself
2. egotism, selfishness
3. (Buddhism) atman

• “我”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎[3] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015-2026

From Middle Chinese 我 (MC ngaX).

Historical readings Dongguk Jeongun reading Dongguk Jeongun, 1448 ᅌᅡᆼ〯 (Yale: ngǎ) Middle Korean Text Eumhun Gloss (hun) Reading Hunmong Jahoe, 1527[4] 나 (Yale: nà) 아〯 (Yale: ǎ)

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): [a̠(ː)]
• Phonetic hangul: [아(ː)]
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

我 (eumhun 나 아 (na a))

1. (literary) hanja form? of 아 (“I; me”)
2. (literary) hanja form? of 아 (“we; us; our”)

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典. [5]

(Sixth grade kyōiku kanji)

• On (unclassified): がー (gā)
• Kun: わん (wan, 我ん)、わー (wā)、わったー (wattā, 我ったー)

• 吾

From Proto-Japonic *wa.

我 (wa) (kana わ)

1. first-person personal pronoun: I, me

For quotations using this term, see Citations:我.

• 我が (waga)

• Japanese: 我 (wa)
• Middle Chinese: 倭 (‘wa) (possible)
  • → Japanese: 倭 (wa)

From 我 (wa, see above) +‎ れ (-re, “thing”, nominalizing suffix).

我 (ware) (kana われ)

1. first-person personal pronoun: I, me, oneself

For quotations using this term, see Citations:我.

• Japanese: 我 (ware)

Likely a compound of 我 (wa, see above) +‎ ろ (-ro, suffix indicating affection).

我 (waro2) (kana わろ)

1. (regional, Southern Eastern Old Japanese) first person singular pronoun: I, me

For quotations using this term, see Citations:我.

The eastern variant of 我 (ware).[1] Appears to be 我 (wa) + ぬ (nu), appearing here not as the negative verb auxiliary but rather as a suffixing element of uncertain meaning. Appears in the Man’yōshū, volume 14 poem 3476.[2]

我 (wanu) (kana わぬ)

1. (regional, Northern Eastern Old Japanese) first person personal pronoun: I, me, oneself

For quotations using this term, see Citations:我.

From Proto-Japonic *a.

我 (a) (kana あ)

1. first-person singular pronoun: I, me

For quotations using this term, see Citations:我.

• 我が (aga)

• Japanese: あ (a)

From 我 (a, see above) +‎ れ (-re, nominalizing suffix).

我 (are) (kana あれ)

1. first-person singular pronoun: I, me

For quotations using this term, see Citations:我.

• Japanese: あれ (are)

我: Hán Việt readings: ngã[1][2][3][4], ngả (語(ngữ)可(khả)切(thiết))[5] 我: Nôm readings: ngả[1][2][3][6][5][4][7], ngã[1][2][3][5][4][7]

1. Nôm form of ngả (“way; direction”)
2. Nôm form of ngã (“to fall; to slip”)