私

See also 厶

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

私 (radical 115 禾+2, 7 strokes, cangjie input 竹木戈 (HDI), four-corner 2293₀, composition ⿰禾厶)

1. private, personal
2. secret

References

• KangXi: page 849, character 5
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 24913
• Dae Jaweon: page 1271, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2589, character 6
• Unihan data for U+79C1

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Cantonese

Hanzi

私 (Yale si1)

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Japanese

Etymology

From Proto-Japanese *bà hypothetically from Nostratic *mV making it a cognate with Proto-Indo-European *(e)me and therefore English pronoun me.

Kanji

私 (grade 6 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• On: し (shi)
• Kun: わたし (watashi), わたくし (watakushi), ひそか (hisoka)

Pronoun

私 (hiragana わたし, romaji watashi)

also read as (わたくし, watakushi) more formal

also read as (あたし, atashi) generally only used by women when referring to themselves

1. I (first person pronoun)
   • 私はイギリス人です。

     わたしはイギリスじんです。

     Watashi wa igirisu-jin desu.

     I'm English.

   • 私は誰ですか?

     わたしはだれですか?

     Watashi wa dare desu ka?

     Who am I?

Usage notes

わたし is the usual polite term for referring to oneself; わたくし is formal, and only used in certain circumstances, such as by TV announcers or public figures such as politicians. Conversely, it is too formal for casual conversation, where terms like 俺 (for men) are preferred.

See also

• 俺 (おれ, ore)
• 小生 (しょうせい, shōsē)
• 小職 (しょうしょく, shōshoku)
• 朕 (ちん, chin)
• 僕 (ぼく, boku) I (generally used by males)
• 余 (よ, yo)
• 我 (われ, ware)

Compounds

• 私用
• 私的
• 私案
• 私文書
• 私物
• 私大
• 私道
• 私営
• 私腹を肥やす
• 私議
• 私人
• 私書箱
• 私書函
• 私共
• 私が愛する所ノ女性 (わたくしがあいするところのじょせい, watakushi ga ai suru tokoro no josei, the woman whom I love)
• 私儀
• 私自身
• 私も又
• 私する
• 私たち
• 私達
• 私宛
• 私供
• 私も亦
• 私語

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Korean

Hanja

私 (hangeul 사, revised sa, McCune-Reischauer sa, Yale sa)

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Mandarin

Hanzi

私 (pinyin sī (si1), Wade-Giles ssu¹)

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Vietnamese

Han character

私 (tư, tây)