Japanese Pronouns - I, You, He, She, They, My, This, That

For reference, the pronouns of the Japanese language, and the posts which talked about them.

• Personal Pronouns
• First Person
• Second Person
• Third Person
• "It"
• Demonstrative Pronouns
• This, That, What
• Here, There, Where
• Plural Pronouns
• Object Pronouns
• Possessive Pronouns
• Personal Pronouns Chart

Personal Pronouns

First Person Pronouns

The following words can be used to say "I" in Japanese:

• watashi 私
• boku 僕
• ore 俺
• ore-sama 俺様 (anime trope, not used seriously.)

The above are the most common, but there are other first pronouns too.

Second Person Pronouns

The following words can be used to say "you" in Japanese:

• anata あなた
• kimi 君
• omae お前
• temee てめぇ
• kisama 貴様

There are immense differences between the words above.

Sometimes kono この means "you" when swearing. See kono yarou この野郎.

Third Person Pronouns

The following word can be used to say "he" in Japanese:

• kare 彼

And this is how you'd say "she" in Japanese:

• kanojo 彼女

Besides the above, the pronoun aitsu あいつ is sometimes used with a meaning similar to "he."

The following demonstrating pronouns mean "this person," "that person," but can be understood as "me," "you," ""he," or "she" depending on context.

• kono hito, sono hito, ano hito このひと, そのひと, あのひと
• kono ko, sono ko, ano ko この子, その子, あの子
• kocchi, socchi, acchi こっち, そっち, あっち
• kochira, sochira, achira こちら, そちら, あちら
• konata, sonata, anata こなた, そなた, あなた
• This anata means "he" and it's archaic.
• The modern anata means "you" instead.

"It"

There's no Japanese equivalent for the pronoun "it." See the article "It" in Japanese for examples of how the functions of "it" in English translate to Japanese.

Demonstrative Pronouns

This, that, here, there, etc. in Japanese are expressed through the kosoado kotoba.

This, That, What

To say the nouns "this," "that," and "what" in Japanese:

• kore これ
• sore それ
• are あれ
• dore どれ

To say the adjectives "this," "that," and "what" in Japanese:

• kono この
• sono その
• ano あの
• dono どの

There are certain Japanese words like kou こう, konna こんあ, kochira こちら, and others. that also mean "this," "that," and "what," each with a different nuance. See kosoado kotoba for details.

Here, There, Where

To say "this," "there," and "where" in Japanese:

• koko ここ
• soko そこ
• asoko あそこ
• doko どこ

Plural Pronouns

In Japanese, plurals don't work the same way they do in English. In particular, Japanese has the so-called pluralizing suffixes tachi たち and ra ら, which can be combined with pronouns to form plural pronouns.

To say "we" in Japanese:

• watashitachi 私たち
• bokura 僕ら, bokutachi 僕達
• orera 俺ら, oretachi 俺達

To say "they" in Japanese:

• karera 彼ら
  They. (he and the others)
• kanojotachi 彼女たち
  They. (she and the others)

To say "these" and "those" in Japanese:

• korera これら
• sorera それら

Object Pronouns

There are no words for "me," "us," "him," "her," and "them" in Japanese. There's no distinction between subject pronouns and object pronouns in Japanese.

The only difference is in the usage of particles. This has been explained in simple sentences in Japanese. For example:

• watashi ga kare wo koroshita 私が彼を殺した
  I killed him.
• kare ga watashi wo koroshita 彼が私を殺した
  He killed me.

Possessive Pronouns

There are no words for "my," "his," "her," "their" in Japanese. There are no words for "mine," "hers," and "theirs" either.

Instead, the no の particle is used together with a pronoun to express what it possesses. For example:

• ore no kane 俺の金
  My money.
• anata no yume あなたの夢
  Your dream.
• kare no nozomi 彼の望み
  His wish.
• kanojotachi no kimochi
  彼女たちの気持ち
  Their feelings.

Personal Pronouns Chart

For reference, a chart with the personal pronouns:

Source: japanesewithanime.com (CC BY-SA 4.0)