Example sentences
tā它shì是wǒ我de的māo猫。
It is my cat.
wǒ我xǐ喜huan欢tā它。
I like it.
The story behind the character
它
它 is a snake. The oracle form is a coiled serpent with a fat head, and it was the original 蛇. Xu Shen wrote 它, 虫也, then explained why the ancients greeted each other with it: 上古艸居患它, 故相問無它乎. People lived among the grass and feared snakes, so hello meant "no snakes?" Later it was borrowed for the pronoun "it," and 蛇 had to be built to take its place.