Literary 其 (his / her / its)

Structure 其 + noun = "his / her / its / their" (literary possessive or demonstrative)

其 (qí) is the possessive and demonstrative pronoun of the cultivated register: it equals 他的 / 它的 / 他们的 ("his, her, its, their") or "that / the said" pointing back to something already mentioned. It shows up in set phrases of journalism and essays: 各尽其责 = "let each do their duty", 究其原因 = "if one looks into its cause…". It is anaphoric: it refers back to an antecedent in the text and is never used to introduce something new. Do not confuse it with the compounds 其中 ("among them") or 其余 ("the rest"), which are words in their own right.

Examples

团tuán队duì成chéng员yuán应yīng各gè尽jìn其qí责zé。
Each team member should fulfill their own duty.
究jiū其qí原yuán因yīn，在zài于yú管guǎn理lǐ不bù善shàn。
Looking into its cause, it lies in poor management.
这zhè家jiā企qǐ业yè以yǐ其qí优yōu质zhì服fú务wù著zhù称chēng。
This firm is renowned for its high-quality service.

This point and the other 370, with audio on every example, inside Wanyu.

Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play