Burmese pronouns
Burmese pronouns are words in the Burmese language used to address or refer to people or things.
Subject pronouns begin sentences, though the subject is generally omitted in the imperative forms and in conversation. Grammatically speaking, subject marker particles must be attached to the subject pronoun, although they are also generally omitted in conversation. Object pronouns must have an object marker particle attached immediately after the pronoun. Proper nouns are often substituted for pronouns. One's status in relation to the audience determines the pronouns used, with certain pronouns used for different audiences.
Personal pronouns
Polite pronouns are used to address elders, teachers and strangers, through the use of feudal-era third person pronouns in lieu of first and second person pronouns. In such situations, one refers to oneself in third person: for males, and and refer to the addressee as , or . So ingrained are these terms in the daily polite speech that people use them as the first and second person pronouns without giving a second thought to the root meaning of these pronouns.When speaking to a person of the same status or of younger age, and may be used, although most speakers choose to use third person pronouns, typically derived from Burmese kinship terms. For example, an older person may use or to refer to himself, while a younger person may use either or .
Basic personal pronouns
Basic pronouns can be pluralized by suffixing the following particles to the pronoun: or colloquial .| IPA | Burmese | Person | Level of speech | Remarks |
| First | Informal | used when speaking to one's equals or inferiors | ||
| First | Formal | used by males | ||
| First | Formal | used by females | ||
| First | Informal | |||
| First | Informal | a contraction of ကျွန်ုပ် | ||
| Second | Informal | used when speaking to one's equals or inferiors | ||
| Second | Informal | used when speaking to one's equals or inferiors | ||
| Second | Informal | used by females when addressing another female of same age or one younger | ||
| Second | Informal | used by females | ||
| Second | Formal | used by males | ||
| Second | Formal | used by females | ||
| Second | Formal | |||
| Third | ||||
| Third | ||||
| Third |
Religious personal pronouns
Other pronouns are reserved for speaking with Buddhist monks. When speaking to a monk, pronouns like bhun: bhun:, , and are used depending on their status ; when referring to oneself, terms like or are used. When speaking to a monk, the following pronouns are used:Contraction pronunciation rule
In colloquial Burmese, possessive pronouns are contracted when the root pronoun itself is low toned. This does not occur in literary Burmese, which uses as postpositional marker for possessive case instead of . Examples include the following:- + =
- + =
- + =
Demonstrative pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns in Myanmar are same in nature with English. Demonstrative pronouns are identical with the demonstrative adjectives, but demonstrative pronouns stand alone, while demonstrative adjectives qualify a noun.The most common demonstrative pronouns in Myanmar are "this", "that", း "it". They are usually used for referring inanimate objects. These pronouns mostly used with noun or noun phrases. Demonstrative pronouns have the form to demonstrate the previous object. For example, "Mg Thit Lwin was born in Phakant Town." "That Town is also called 'Jade Land'". In the above example sentence, the demonstrative pronoun "that" is used with the noun "town" to refer the "Phakant township".
Reflexive pronouns
Burmese has two alternative forms of the reflexive:- literary form: , often used in conjunction with
- spoken form: , used with direct objects and with pronouns