人 rén — person, human being; people

Pinyin

• rén (second tone, rising)

person, human being; people

Character breakdown

• 人shape partA single pictograph: the whole character is the picture and has no smaller parts.

Mnemonic

Two strokes: a body leaning forward with one leg ahead of the other, a walker seen from the side. Stand the same figure against the left edge of a character and it narrows into 亻, which is how it appears in 你 and 他. Do not let it collapse into 入 rù, where the short stroke starts higher and leans the other way.

A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.

Words containing 人

• 人rén (second tone, rising)person, people
• 别人/別人biérén (second tone, rising)other people, others; somebody else
• 女人nǚrén (third tone, dipping)woman, adult female
• 男人nánrén (second tone, rising)man, adult male
• 个人/個人gèrén (fourth tone, falling)individual, oneself (as opposed to the group); personal
• 客人kèrén (fourth tone, falling)guest, visitor; customer

Radical 人 — other characters

• 他tā (first tone, high and level)he, him; his; (in the plural 他们) they, including groups of mixed or unstated gender
• 们/們men (neutral tone)the plural suffix for pronouns and for nouns denoting people: 我们, 你们, 他们, 朋友们
• 你nǐ (third tone, dipping)you (one person)
• 会/會huì (fourth tone, falling) kuài (fourth tone, falling)to know how to, to be able to (through learning); to be likely to, will; a meeting, a gathering, an association; (kuài) only in 会计, accounting
• 住zhù (fourth tone, falling)to live, to dwell, to stay; to stop, to halt; (as a verb complement) firmly, fast
• 借jiè (fourth tone, falling)to borrow; to lend; to make use of, to take (an opportunity)