别人
other people; others; someone else
biérén
What does 别人 mean?
别人 (biérén) is the pronoun for 'other people / others / someone else' — anyone other than the speaker and the people currently in focus. It can mean a specific third party (别人在等你 'someone else is waiting for you'), a generic 'other people' (别人怎么想我不在乎 'I don't care what others think), or 'somebody besides me/us' (这件事别人不知道 'no one else knows about this').
Two differences from English: first, 别人 is a single word, not a phrase like 'other people' — treat it as one unit; second, Chinese uses 别人 far more often than English uses 'others' because Chinese tends to talk about general behavior in terms of 别人 instead of saying 'people' or 'they.' The literal breakdown is 别 (other) + 人 (person), and the pinyin can sound like 'biéren' with a slightly reduced second syllable in casual speech.
Character breakdown
other; different; don't
person; people
Memory hook: 别 (other) + 人 (people) — literally 'other people.'
Example sentences
别人都走了，就剩我们了。
Biérén dōu zǒu le, jiù shèng wǒmen le.
Everyone else has left — just us are left.
spoken
不要拿别人的东西。
Búyào ná biérén de dōngxi.
Don't take other people's things.
neutral
我们应该多帮助别人。
Wǒmen yīnggāi duō bāngzhù biérén.
We should help others more.
neutral
别人怎么想，我不太在乎。
Biérén zěnme xiǎng, wǒ bú tài zàihu.
I don't really care what others think.
spoken
Common phrases with 别人
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别人 appears in 1 podcast episode at natural native speed, with full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Synonyms
他人 is the formal, written equivalent of 别人, found in legal language, signs, and literature: 尊重他人 (respect others). In speech, native speakers say 别人, not 他人.
人家 can mean 'other people' too, but it is more colloquial and often emotional: 人家都比我强 (everyone else is better than me) carries a hint of complaint. It can also mean 'I / me' coquettishly. 别人 is neutral; 人家 colors the sentence.
Don't confuse 别人 with
其他人 means 'the other people' — specifically the remaining ones in a defined group: 其他人都走了 (the others have all left). 别人 is more general — anyone not in focus, not necessarily from a known group.
别的 means 'other (things) / something else' — used for things, not people: 还要别的吗 (anything else?). For people, use 别人.
FAQ
Related words from the same episodes
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