外国人询问：汉语中的“他”和“她”发音完全一样，中国人是怎么区分所指对象是男性还是女性的呢？

Thick_Clerk6449
Context.

语境。

Even in English, if there are 2 women, you still need context to find what she refers to. I'm I correct?

即使在英语中，如果有两名女性，你仍然需要通过语境来确定“她”指代的是谁，我说得对吗？

FatBloke4
Yes, context is important in English.

是的，语境在英语中很重要。

Interestingly, in early 20th century England, it was deemed offensive to refer to a woman as "she", especially if the person speaking knew her name. If I used "she" when referring to a woman, my father would say "She is the cat's mother!" (referencing the term "she cat"). If talking about any woman in the third person, I was expected to use the woman's name or other identifying terms e.g. job title.

有趣的是，在二十世纪初的英国，直接称女性为“她”被认为是不礼貌的，尤其当说话者知道对方姓名时。如果我用“她”来指代一位女性，我父亲会责备说：“她可是猫的妈妈！”（暗指“母猫”这一说法）。当以第三人称谈论任何女性时，最好使用其姓名或其他身份标识，如职业头衔。

SufficientWay9814
yeahh but in Chinese, you cant tell which gender are they talking about

是的，但在中文里，你无法分辨他们说的是哪个性别

Fetz-
It's not needed. The obsession with gender that English and other European languages have is weird.

没必要。英语和其他欧洲语言对性别的过度执着挺奇怪的。

Honeybee_Awning
It’s odd that you call the way some languages have developed as “obsession” lol

你把某些语言的发展方式称为"执着"还挺好笑的

Fetz-
Some European languages almost require gender to form a complete sentence. Thats not the case in many other languages.

有些欧洲语言几乎必须靠性别才能组成完整句子。许多其他语言并非如此。

The way gender is baked into some European languages appears obsessive for people from languages that don't require gender.

在一些欧洲语言里将性别概念植入语法的做法，对于来自无性别语言背景的人们而言，显得过于执着。

Wird2TheBird3
It's just a grammatical thing though lol, obsession is kind of a loaded term to use in the context of a language. It would be similarly odd to say "Russian is obsessed with cases" or "Arabic is obsessed with conjugation" just because some other languages don't have as extensive a system of those grammatical features

但这不过是语法体系的一部分，用"执着"这个词来形容语言特质可能带有主观色彩。就像我们不能因为某些语言没有复杂的格变化体系就说"俄语执着于变格"，或者因为某些语言缺乏丰富的动词变位系统就说"阿拉伯语执着于变位"。

Honeybee_Awning
I’m from a language that doesn’t have gender and I do not find it obsessive at all so who are you speaking for? Maybe do not generalise? Just because you find it obsessive it does not make it so. Languages develop differently within their historical context it doesn’t make it obsessive. Japan has several ways of counting according to the shape and material of what you are counting, does it mean Japanese is obsessed with counting? Maybe you’re not aware or you don’t mean to but your comments come across as antagonistic and it’s weird.

我来自一个没有性别的语言环境，完全不觉得这有什么困扰，你代表谁在发言呢？也许不该一概而论？仅仅因为你感到困扰并不意味着事实如此。语言在各自的历史背景下发展，这并非困扰的表现。日语里根据物体的形状和材质有多种计数方式，难道这就说明日本人执着于计数吗？或许你没有意识到或者并非有意，但你的评论听起来充满对立意味，这很奇怪。

nyd_det_nu
Weird? Haha people are just confused about how other languages work

奇怪？哈哈，人们只是对其他语言的运作方式感到困惑罢了

KaiserLC
You are wrong. Language such as Spanish. Chair sand tables has feminine and masculine/gender.

你说错了。像西班牙语这样的语言，椅子和桌子都有阴性和阳性/性别之分。

scheissenaixi
Her father parked his car behind hers and he told her she could drive his tomorrow. The next day he parked hers behind his and then she took hers back

她父亲把他的车停在她的车后面，然后告诉她，明天她可以开他的车。第二天，他把她的车停在他的车后面，然后她开走了自己的车。

trustywren
But what's your point? Gender is just one of a million ways that two people can be distinguished, and often it ISN'T a distinguishing factor between two people. Pick literally any other--name, job title, familial relationship, age, race, height, religion, hair color, fondness for tinned fish, bench press personal best--and you'd still, with a modicum of effort, be able to tell your story in a way that makes sense. The English obsession with gender as some "special" characteristic worthy of special language rules is completely arbitrary.

但你的观点是什么？性别只是区分两个人的无数方式之一，而且通常它并不是两个人之间的区分因素。随便选其他任何方式——名字、职位、家庭关系、年龄、种族、身高、宗教、发色、对罐头鱼的喜爱程度、卧推个人最佳成绩——只要稍加努力，你仍然能以一种合乎逻辑的方式讲述你的故事。英语对性别作为一种"特殊"特征，值得专门语言规则的痴迷是完全武断的。

scheissenaixi
you seem triggered or something? It’s not “obsession”, it’s about efficiency and clarity.

你好像有点被惹毛了还是怎么的？这不是"痴迷"，而是为了效率和清晰。

trustywren
"The father parked their Subaru behind their daughter's Honda. The father said, "Go ahead and take my car today; we'll switch back tomorrow." And that's what they did."

父亲将他们的斯巴鲁停在女儿的本田后面。父亲说：“今天开我的车吧；明天我们再换回来。”他们照做了。

In my version, I've conveyed more information with fewer words, with no gendered pronouns.

在我的版本中，我用更少的词语传达了更多信息，并且避免了性别代词的区分。

I'm not triggered, I'm just not dense.

我没有被激怒，我只是不愚钝。

TheRabbiit
He didn’t seem triggered to me. In fact I think he explained it pretty well. Although you don’t seem to get it

他看起来并没有被冒犯到。实际上，我觉得他解释得挺清楚的。虽然你似乎没太理解。

SilentDoll1991

他把他的車停在女兒的車後面。他讓女兒明天開自己的車。第二天，他把女兒的車停在自己的車後面，女兒就開回了她自己的車。In Chinese you just replace one of the third person pronouns with another word. In this case the “main” third person I used is “him” to refer to the dad, so “her” gets replaced with the word “daughter”. To be honest, replacing the “her” with “daughter” in the English sentence makes it clearer too, instead of using all the his and hers… There are many ways of conveying necessary information, using genderized third person pronouns is just one of them. In Chinese we just don’t feel like it’s necessary to reveal someone’s gender every time we talk about them. It’s just not important.
他把他的车停在女儿的车后面。他让女儿明天开自己的车。第二天，他把女儿的车停在自己的车后面，女儿就开回了她自己的车。在中文里，你可以用另一个词替换第三人称代词之一。在这个例子中，我使用的主要第三人称是“他”来指代父亲，所以“她”被替换为“女儿”。老实说，在英文句子里用“女儿”代替“她”也让意思更清楚，而不是都用“他的”和“她的”……传达必要信息有很多种方式，使用有性别区分的第三人称代词只是其中之一。在中文里，我们并不觉得每次提到某人都必须透露其性别。这并不重要。

BornPraline5607
I realized I can make that story gender neutral in Spanish. So, Chinese isn't the only one

我意识到在西班牙语里，我也可以让那个故事变得性别中立。所以，中文并不是唯一的。

Rdtisgy1234
What happens if this “she” suddenly identifies as a “he”? Or what if the father has a son instead of a daughter? Are you saying that the English language is incapable of handling situations where all parties involved have the same gender?

如果这个"她"突然自我认同为"他"会怎样？又或者父亲生的是儿子而非女儿呢？难道英语无法处理所有参与者性别相同的情况吗？

JohnConradKolos
Some languages sort of "force" a speaker to give certain kinds of information.

某些语言会"迫使"说话者提供特定类型的信息。

In Korean, they have different words for goodbye. One if I'm leaving and another if you are. We get "by" in English without this distinction.

韩语中有不同的告别用语——我离开时用一个词，你离开时用另一个词。而英语只有一个"再见"，没有这种区分。

Likewise, in English I'm not obligated to include information about whether the subject is older or younger than I am.

同理，在英语中我也没有义务说明主语是比我年长还是年幼。

Business_Pie_1798
Only if there are two other people with different gender, you can get that info from a single "ta". Whats the point?

只有存在两个性别不同的其他人时，你才能从一个"ta"中获取信息。这有什么意义？

orz-_-orz
Why are you so obsessed with gender over other distinctions? English pronouns don't distinguish white people and black people, or old people vs young people, or people with purple hair and a black hair, so what? Languages have ways to circumvent it.

为什么你这么执着于性别区分，而不是其他区别呢？英语中的代词并不会区分白人和黑人、老人和年轻人，或者头发是紫色还是黑色，这有什么问题吗？语言总有办法绕过这些。

SufficientWay9814
im not obsessed, im just curious how do Chinese people know what they are talking about

我没有执着，只是好奇中国人是怎么知道他们正在谈论的是谁。

__BlueSkull__
We don't. We guess that from the name, and for people with a name of a different gender, it always ends up in laughter.

我们不用。我们只能根据名字来猜，如果名字的性别不符合预期，最终总会引来一阵笑声。

sectionratiocardtile
A somewhat funny side effect from this is when Chinese person takes English as a second language, they would use he and she interchangeably. There are a lot of Chinese speakers at where I work and it's always a little funny when it happens.

一个有点好笑的结果是，当中国人将英语作为第二语言时，他们会混用 he 和 she。我工作的地方有很多说中文的人，当这种情况发生时总是有点好笑。

__BlueSkull__
Well, the mixup has never happened on me. Sometimes I intentionally use all "he" when referring to a gender-agnostic figure, but that's it. I speak a few gender-aware languages, including Japanese and Russian, the latter being very gendered, so I guess I'm just used to it.

嗯，这种混淆从未发生在我身上。有时我会有意地使用"他"来指代一个性别模糊的形象，仅此而已。我还会说一些区分性别的语言，包括日语和俄语，其中俄语的性别区分尤其明显，所以我想我只是习惯了这种区别。

Left-Vegetable5193
Foreigner here living in China for 35 years. You just figure the gender out from the context of the conversation. Plus many names give clues.

作为一个在中国生活了 35 年的外国人，我只是通过对话的上下文来弄清楚性别。另外，许多名字也会提供线索。

Total_Big_3065

Chinese has no need to distinguish gender in pronouns at all, the character “她” was created solely as a translation for “she.”
汉语中完全无需在代词上区分性别，“她”这个字纯粹是为了翻译“she”而被创造出来的。

ntkhpkmg
Yes for written pronouns, but what about verbal ?

是的，就书面代词而言是这样，但口头表达呢？

Total_Big_3065
Why is it necessary to specify someone’s gender when referring to a third party? In most cases, it’s completely unnecessary. There are many other differences between people, such as ethnicity, yet no language uses third person pronouns to distinguish between races, and this doesn’t prevent people of different ethnicities from communicating

在提及第三方时，为何必须明确其性别？在大多数情况下，这完全是多余的。人与人之间还存在许多其他差异，例如种族，但没有哪种语言使用第三人称代词来区分种族，这并不妨碍不同种族的人进行交流。

x3nhydr4lutr1sx
Because gender (and plurality) are literally rooted so deeply into Indo-European languages -- in all their pronouns, in most of their nouns, in their adjectives, sometimes even in their verbs, Western culture can never escape from binary gender in their thoughts, and all gender conflict (gender rights, trans, homophobia) ultimately stem from an inability to decouple gender from language.

因为性别（以及复数形式）确实深深植根于印欧语系——体现在所有代词、大多数名词、形容词，有时甚至是动词中，西方文化在思想层面永远无法摆脱二元性别观念，所有性别冲突（性别权利、跨性别者、恐同症）最终都源于无法将性别与语言脱钩。

frozenwalkway
They are the ogs of they them for every one

他们是每个人心中 ta 们的始祖

Former_Net4588
You're right, in spoken Mandarin, "he" (tā), "she" (tā), and "it" (tā) all sound exactly the same.

你说得对，在普通话口语中，“他”（tā）、“她”（tā）和“它”（tā）的发音确实完全相同。

Context is king**:** Usually, the subject (a name, "my mom," "the doctor," etc.) is established at the start of the conversation, so you know who "ta" refers to for the rest of the story.

**语境是关键：** 通常，会话开头会先确立主语（一个名字、“我妈妈”、“医生”等），这样在接下来的讲述中，你就知道“ta”指的是谁了。

We just ask**:** If someone jumps into a story with "Ta did this," we might interrupt and ask, "Nan de haishi nv de?" (The male one or the female one?).

我们通常会问：如果有人在讲故事时直接说“他这样做了”，我们可能会打断并问：“男的还是女的？”
Writing is different**:** In written Chinese, the characters are distinct: 他 (he) vs 她 (she) vs 它 (it).
书写则不同：在中文书写中，字符是明确的：他 (he) 对 她 (she) 对 它 (it)。

Funnily enough, sometimes even native speakers get mixed up if the context isn't clear!

有趣的是，有时候即使是以中文为母语的人，如果上下文不够清楚，也可能会搞混！

Sea_Silver6321

他 doesn’t mean he, it’s the gender neutral third person pronoun, like singular they in English.
“他”不是指男性，而是中性的第三人称代词，类似于英语中的“他们”单数用法。

It could be assumed to mean he but can also be used for unknown/unimportant/female third persons.

它可以被假定为指男性，但也可以用于未知、不重要或女性的第三人称。

A lot of older Chinese don’t use 她 at all.

许多老一辈中国人根本不用“她”字。

SufficientWay9814
ohhh

哦，明白了

Knightowllll
Less important than gender in most stories is who they are referring to if there’s a bunch of ppl in the story. Like if you’re listening to a story about 5 male cousins and you keep hearing “he did ____” it’s not as helpful as saying the person’s name

在大多数故事中，相较于性别，更重要的是指代的是故事中的哪个角色。假如你听到一个关于五位表兄弟的故事，如果总是用“他做了____”这样的说法，就不如直接提名字来得清楚。

woundsofwind
It doesn't really matter as long as it indicates a third person.

只要表示的是第三人称，具体是"他"还是"她"并不重要。

DaimonHans
For one, China never had a pronoun problem

首先，中国从来没有过代词问题

battlehamsta
A: he or she?

A：是他还是她？

B: get back in line feudal peasant.

B：回到队伍里去，封建农民。

Medium_Apartment_747
It's a Schrodinger's cat situation. It's ambiguous until some context or event forces the gender to one

这是个薛定谔的猫式情境。在特定情境或事件明确指向某种性别前，始终存在模糊性。

SufficientWay9814
oh so like the native speakers will just get it from the context?

哦，所以母语者会通过语境来理解吗？

DanTheLaowai
Or it just remains ambiguous. "I was talking to my doctor and (ta) said to take this medicine" . It doesn't matter if my doctor was a man or a woman in this instance. If it's relevant you can make it known.

或者就这样保持含糊不清。“我和医生聊天，他说要服用这种药。”在这种情况下，我的医生是男性还是女性并不重要。如果需要明确，可以加以说明。

yaxuefang
Exactly this. Same in Finnish too.

正是这样。芬兰语也是如此。

xiatiandeyun01
I don't know, the word is a recent imitation of the English language, newly coined.

不知道，这个词是新近模仿英语造的，新近创造的词。

SufficientWay9814
haha true

哈哈确实

BernhardRordin
The same you determine the gender with the word "they" in English: context. There are multiple languages that don't have gendered third person (Hungarian, Turkish...)

这和英语中用"they"来判断性别的方式一样：靠上下文。许多语言都没有性别化的第三人称（如匈牙利语、土耳其语等）

Rt237

Before 20th centries, '她' (she) didn't exist, and everyone's pronoun is the same.
在 20 世纪之前，“她”这个字并不存在，所有人称代词都是一样的。

Why should the pronoun reflect one's sex?

为什么代词一定要反映人的性别呢？

Geraldks
When writing we have different words, when speaking they all sound the same so no one really gets offended. That's the beauty of Chinese as a language

书写时我们用不同的字，说话时发音都一样，所以没人会真的被冒犯。这就是汉语作为一门语言的美妙之处

Imho some languages are just overcomplicating something so simple plus even more complicated now with the whole LGBTQ+ stuff

我个人觉得有些语言就是把简单的事情搞复杂了，更何况现在又加上了整个 LGBTQ+的东西

PorkMaster37
The French are wondering how the Americans know if 'they' are talking about 'elles' or 'ils' when it's the same word.

法国人很好奇，当美国人说到"they"这个词时，他们如何区分对方指的是"elles"（女性"她们"）还是"ils"（男性"他们"）。

danorcs
You basically can’t from the pronouns

基本上，你无法仅从代词本身来判断

And Classical Chinese didn’t either, gender was contextual, not grammatical. The female pronoun 她 is a modern written invention.

古文亦然，性别靠语境分辨，而非语法规定。女性代词"她"是现代书面语的发明。

This flexibility shows up culturally too: Guanyin, one of the most popular religious figures in China, derives from a male bodhisattva but is widely depicted as female

这种灵活性在文化中同样有所体现：观音——中国最受欢迎的宗教形象之一，其原型本为男性菩萨，但普遍被描绘为女性形象

iansredd
Wait till you find out “It” sounds the same too

等你发现“它”的发音也一样时会更惊讶

Bchliu
Chinese is very much a contextual language so the way it's expressed should be implied in previous statements and or shared knowledge. If not then it's polite to clarify.

汉语是高度依赖语境的语言，因此指代关系通常蕴含在前文表述或共同认知中。若语境不明，礼貌的做法是主动澄清。

2Ben3510
Get it from context. If there's not enough context to tell, then it means the difference is irrelevant.

从上下文推断。如果没有足够的上下文来区分，那就意味着这个差异无关紧要。

RichCommercial104
Names. Most Chinese names are either masculine or feminine so it's easy for us to know someone's gender just by hearing their name.

名字。大多数中文名字都有明显的性别倾向，所以我们只要听到名字就很容易知道对方的性别。

Electronic-Run2030
Therefore, you cannot assume the other person's gender, or even species, based on the pronunciation of "ta". ╮(￣▽￣)╭

所以，你不能仅凭“ta”这个发音来断定对方的性别，甚至物种。╮(￣▽￣)╭

msackeygh
So to flip that question on its head, why is knowing that person’s gender from pronouns necessary?

那么换个角度问，为什么非得通过代词来了解一个人的性别呢？

thedailyrant
This isn't exclusively a Chinese issue. Many languages don't have a gender specific pronoun for a third party.

这不仅是中国特有的问题。许多语言中第三人称代词并不区分性别。

High-Bamboo
I worked with many native Mandarin speakers who frequently have trouble distinguishing between “he“ and “she.“ Meanwhile, more and more native English speakers are using the plural pronoun “they“ as a singular third person, gender, neutral, pronoun as in, “if anyone wants to leave, they may go.”

我曾与许多汉语母语者共事，他们常常难以区分“他”和“她”的发音。与此同时，越来越多英语母语者开始使用复数代词“they”作为单数第三人称的性别中性代词，例如“如果有人想离开，他们可以走了”。

BruceWillis1963
We use pronouns when we know what or who we are referring to so it is clear .

我们使用代词来指代已知的事物或人物，以便表达清晰。

cchyn
In addition to all the other comments, when you really need to know, just ask.

除了其他所有评论提到的，当你真的需要确认时，不妨直接询问。

General-Cream2692
Context and various pronouns

语境与多样化的代词

Top-Fig-8846
I don't know, but sometimes the first name can tell

我不太确定，不过有时候名字能透露出性别信息

muh_whatever
We don't.

我们不作区分。

If the gender of a subject person matters for a conversation but isn't known, mention it at the start for context. Contextual comprehension is crucial for all language, but it's especially so in Chinese languages.

如果对话中人物性别重要但不明确，会在开头说明以提供背景。语境理解对所有语言都至关重要，但对中文而言尤为关键。