3 · The basic sentence
Oneself and each other: zìjǐ and hùxiāng
reflexive and reciprocal
Zìjǐ is “self”: by oneself, oneself, one’s own. Hùxiāng is “each other”, and it stands before the verb, not after it.
At a glance
- Remember
- Zìjǐ is every “-self” and “own”; hùxiāng is “each other” and goes before the verb.
- Form
- 我自己myself, yourself …
- Signal words
- 自己
- 自己的
- 互相
- 彼此
- Trap
- Wrong:他们常常帮助互相。Right:他们常常互相帮助。
Your turn
8 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in Chinese.
| myself, yourself … | 我自己 |
| by oneself | 自己做 |
| oneself, as object | 相信自己 |
| one’s own | 自己的车 |
| each other | 互相帮助 |
| each other (written) | 彼此了解 |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
After a pronoun or name, zìjǐ stresses who: myself, herself.
这个蛋糕是她自己做的。She made this cake herself.
As an object, zìjǐ points back to the subject.
你要好好照顾自己。Take good care of yourself.
Zìjǐ de is “one’s own”.
每个人都有自己的想法。Everyone has their own ideas.
Hùxiāng stands before the verb and needs a plural subject.
我们应该互相学习。We should learn from each other.
Example sentences
你自己决定吧。You decide for yourself.
他总是只想着自己。He only ever thinks about himself.
我想有一个自己的房间。I’d like a room of my own.
邻居们常常互相帮忙。The neighbours often help each other out.
他们认识很多年了，互相很信任。They have known each other for years and trust each other deeply.
别怪别人，先想想自己的问题。Don’t blame others — think about your own part first.
7 more example sentences
这件事我想自己解决。I want to sort this out myself.
门自己开了。The door opened by itself.
你要相信自己。You have to believe in yourself.
两个孩子互相看了一眼，笑了。The two children looked at each other and laughed.
同事之间应该互相尊重。Colleagues should respect one another.
他开着自己的车来的。He came in his own car.
我们俩常给对方写信。The two of us often write to each other.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
In English “each other” is the object and follows the verb. 互相 is an adverb, and Chinese adverbs stand before the verb — after the subject and any other adverbs such as 常常, never at the end.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
English has a whole set of words for “self” — myself, yourself, herself, themselves. Chinese has one, 自己, for every person and every number. It does three jobs. After a pronoun or a name it stresses who: 我自己去, “I’ll go myself”. Before a verb, alone, it means “by oneself, without help”: 孩子会自己穿衣服了, “the child can dress himself now”.
As an object it points back to the subject: 他不相信自己, “he doesn’t believe in himself”. And with 的 it means “one’s own”: 自己的房间, “one’s own room”, 你自己的事, “your own business”. Which person it means always comes from the sentence, usually from its subject.
互相 is “each other, one another”, and it is an adverb: it stands before the verb, like 都 or 也. 我们互相帮助, “we help each other”. The subject has to be plural — two people, a group, 我们, 他们 — because one person cannot do anything to “each other”.
English puts “each other” after the verb, as an object, and that is the mistake: 我们帮助互相 is not Chinese. And a one-syllable verb after 互相 usually needs something more, a complement or a short object: 他们互相看了一眼, “they exchanged a glance”.
A closer look
Whose self?
In a sentence with two people in it, 自己 can reach further back than English “himself” can. 老王说小李不相信自己 can mean that Xiao Li does not believe in himself — or that he does not believe Lao Wang. Context, as so often, decides.
Where it matters, a speaker adds the pronoun: 他自己, “he himself”, ties the self to the nearest person and removes the doubt.
Exceptions and special cases (1)
-
the verb already means “each other”, such as 相爱 or 见面
互相 is not needed and usually left out.
他们很相爱。They love each other very much.
The 相 in 相爱, “love one another”, already carries the meaning, and meeting is always mutual. Adding 互相 would say it twice.
Worth knowing (1)
-
Each other as an object: duìfāng
When “each other” has to be an object — after 给, 对 or 跟 — Chinese uses 对方, “the other side”, instead of 互相.
他们很了解对方。They know each other very well.
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