Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

呢 (radical 30 口+5, 8 strokes, cangjie input 口尸心 (RSP), four-corner 6701₁, composition ⿰口尼)

References

• KangXi: page 181, character 25
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3430
• Dae Jaweon: page 399, character 31
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 609, character 3
• Unihan data for U+5462

Chinese

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Definitions

呢

1. Sentence-final particle indicating a reciprocal question; used to apply the previously asked question to a new subject. What about ...?; And ...?
   • 你呢？  ―  Nǐ ne?  ―  How about you?
   • 你覺得呢？ / 你觉得呢？  ―  Nǐ juéde ne?  ―  What do you think?
   • 你爸爸好嗎？你媽媽呢？ [MSC, trad.]
     你爸爸好吗？你妈妈呢？ [MSC, simp.]

     Nǐ bàba hǎo ma? Nǐ māma ne? [Pinyin]

     How is your father? And your mom?

2. Sentence-final particle signalling a pause, to emphasize the preceding words.
3. Sentence-final particle indicating action in progress, English present continuous. to be ...-ing
   • 我們上漢語課呢。 / 我们上汉语课呢。  ―  Wǒmen shàng hànyǔ kè ne.  ―  We are attending a Chinese lesson.
4. Sentence-final particle used to make questions more indirect, to give the impression that the speaker is speaking to themselves.
   • 他去哪兒了呢？ / 他去哪儿了呢？  ―  Tā qù nǎr le ne?  ―  I wonder where he's going?

Usage notes

When expressing an action in progress, 呢 can be used with 正在 (zhèngzài) and 著／着 (zhuó) in a sentence. This is the full pattern. Each part is optional.

我們正在上著漢語課呢。 [MSC, trad.]

我们正在上着汉语课呢。 [MSC, simp.]

Wǒmen zhèngzài shàng zhe hànyǔ kè ne. [Pinyin]

We are attending a Chinese lesson.

Compounds

• 呢喃 (nínán)

Etymology 2

Substrate word. Compare:

• Proto-Tai *najᶜ ‎(“this”): Zhuang neix ‎(“this”), Thai นี้ ‎(níi, “this”), Lao ນີ້ ‎(nī, “this”)
• Proto-Mon-Khmer *niʔ ~ nih ‎(“this”): Khmer នេះ ‎(néh, “this”)
• Proto-Mon-Khmer *naaj ‎(“deictic particle”): Khmer នាយ ‎(néay, “over there”), Vietnamese này, nầy ‎(“this”), Vietnamese nay ‎(“now”), Vietnamese nấy ‎(“that”)
• Proto-Hmong-Mien *ʔneinˣ ‎(“this”): White Hmong no ‎(“here, this”)
• Proto-Austronesian *nay ‎(“deictic particle: this”), *qani ‎(“proximal deictic: this”), *-ni ‎(“proximal spatio-temporal deixis: this, here; now”): Malay ini ‎(“this”).

Pronunciation

Definitions

呢

1. (Cantonese) this

Usage notes

• See 呢個#Usage notes.

Synonyms

Japanese

Kanji

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Readings

• On: じ (ji), に (ni)

Korean

Hanja

呢 • ‎(ni) (hangeul 니, McCune-Reischauer ni)

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Vietnamese

Han character

呢 (ni, nài, nấy, nê, nỉ, nì, này)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.