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余 and 我 both mean I. But I still can't understand the real difference. Also, I want an example sentence. When I use Google Translate and Bing Translator, the result is same.

Mou某
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Christian Irwan Hadi Wicaksana
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    余 is from ancient Chinese, like 予/吾. See wiki 汉语人称代词. And 我 is a modern style. – Stan Jul 27 '13 at 07:35
  • @Stan But I'm wonder, why 余 pronounce yu with second sound. But the 我 is pronounced wo with third sound – Christian Irwan Hadi Wicaksana Jul 27 '13 at 09:50
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    @ChristianIrwanHadiWicaksana Simply because they are two different characters. – Yu Hao Jul 27 '13 at 09:57
  • Yu is right. Just like synonyms in English -- they don't have to be pronounced the same. – Stan Jul 27 '13 at 10:01
  • @Christian: Compare the normal Indonesian (or at least Malay) word for ‘I’, either aku or saya, or the enclitic possessive form -ku. Those are the modern words, corresponding to 我 ‘I’ and 我的 and ‘my’ in Chinese. 余 would then correspond to the Classical Malay words for ‘I’ and ‘my’, which were apparently kitta and kitta poonea, respectively—something I am guessing is completely incomprehensible to modern Indonesians. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Dec 08 '13 at 16:13
  • 「余」（古輔音爲 l-）和「吾/我」（古輔音爲 ŋ-）的來源不同。在使用上的區別是，「余」作表所屬關係的定語時必須加「之」（如余之子），「吾/我」不加（如我子、吾子）。「我」是古漢語中延續下來的人稱代詞，並不是後起的。 – Mike Manilone Dec 14 '13 at 10:20

5 Answers5

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As Stan said 余 is archaic and only found in literature. As in

余既为此志。——明· 归有光《项脊轩志》

我 is what modern-day Chinese use as the first-person pronoun.

我喜欢吃苹果。

I asked some Chinese friends and they only recognized 余 as a surname or meaning surplus or extra.

tao
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    In traditional Chinese areas, 餘 is used specially for the meaning meaning surplus or extra. Though, 余 is also a traditional character and was used as an interchangeable character of 餘, today Hong Kong and Taiwan people use these two discriminatively. – Stan Jul 27 '13 at 14:09
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English also has ancient words, right? For example, English people used to use the word thou rather than you. It is the same in Chinese. 余 is the ancient word of 我.

Victor
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Practically, 余 is no long in use unless in poems or classic literature.

It would be more interesting to look at the various characters refer to 'I'.

我 is certainly the most widely used one.
咱 is colloquial.
俺 is more colloquial and vulgar.
阿拉 is commonly used in Shanghainese dialect.
吾 is in Cantonese dialect.

– and the list goes on.

Janus Bahs Jacquet
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user2404894
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  • 吾 is seldom heard in modern Cantonese. (Did you mean 唔(not)?) – Stan Jul 31 '13 at 07:41
  • 吾系差人 means I am a police. Isn't it? – user2404894 Jul 31 '13 at 17:12
  • That's 我 (ngo5), not 吾 (ng4). See the links from 香港中文大學粵語審音配詞字庫 above. Now 吾 (as I) is hardly heard, because it sounds like 唔 and this would make people misunderstand a sentence. – Stan Aug 01 '13 at 04:46
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我 is also used in ancient times. For example, in 戰國策 之 鄒忌諷齊王納諫

鄒忌脩八尺有餘，而形貌昳麗。朝服衣冠，窺鏡，謂其妻曰：「我孰與城北徐公美？」其妻曰：「君美甚，徐公何能及君也。」城北徐公，齊國之美麗者也。忌不自信，而復問其妾曰：「吾孰與徐公美？」妾曰：「徐公何能及君也。」旦曰，客從外來，與坐談。問之曰：「吾與徐公孰美？」客曰：「徐公不若君之美也。」明日，徐公來，熟視之，自以為不如；窺鏡而自視，又弗如遠甚。暮寢而思之曰：「吾妻之美我者，私我也；妾之美我者，畏我也；客之美我者，欲有求於我也。」於是入朝見威王曰：「臣誠知不如徐公美。臣之妻私臣，臣之妾畏臣，臣之客欲有求於臣，皆以美於徐公。今齊，地方千里，百二時城。宮婦左右，莫不私王；朝廷之臣，莫不畏王；四境之內，莫不有求於王。由此觀之，王之蔽甚矣。」王曰：「善！」乃下令：「群臣吏民能面刺寡人之過者，受上賞；上書諫寡人者，受中賞；能謗議於市朝，聞寡人之耳者，受下賞。」令初下，群臣進諫，門庭若市；數月之後，時時而間進；諅年之後，雖欲言，無可進者。燕、趙、韓、魏聞之，皆朝於齊。此所謂戰勝於朝廷。

George
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Recent researches show that there are differences in grammatical forms of the 2 characters in ancient scripts before or in Qin Dynasty (approx. before 207 B.C.), but in later classical Chinese literature, they are synonyms.

In today's language, 余 as a pronoun has died and only can be seen when people try to write in classical Chinese.

Mou某
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Joseph S WU
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