The Mandarin Chinese character 你 (nǐ) shows a crown or cover (冖) over the character which means “small” (小) clarified with the person character (人) which is drawn in this form: 亻.
An earlier form of nǐ was a pictograph of a balanced load, later simplified to the character 尔. By adding the “person” radical, this character could be seen as “someone who is equal (balanced)” – meaning “you.”
Mandarin Vocabulary with Nǐ
| Pinyin | Characters | Meaning |
| Nǐ hǎo | 你好 | hello |
| Nǐ men | 你们 | you (plural) |
| Nǐ zì jǐ | 你自己 | yourself |
