tā shì bóshì.

to be

Breakdown of tā shì bóshì.

• 她tā: she
• 博士bóshì: PhD; doctorate holder

Questions & Answers about tā shì bóshì.

Why is the pronoun 她 used here? Is it different from 他?

她 means she / her in writing, while 他 usually means he / him.

A very important point: 她 and 他 are both pronounced tā in standard Mandarin. So in speech, you usually cannot hear the difference. The difference is mainly visible in writing.

• 她 = female
• 他 = male
• 它 = it

What exactly does 博士 mean here?

博士 usually means someone with a doctoral degree, or PhD.

So 她是博士 means She is a PhD / She has a doctoral degree / She is a doctorate holder.

It usually does not mean medical doctor. For a medical doctor, Chinese more commonly uses 医生.

So:

• 她是博士。 = She is a PhD / She has a doctorate.
• 她是医生。 = She is a doctor (medical doctor).

Why is there no word for a in She is a doctor?

Mandarin does not have articles like a, an, and the in the same way English does.

So 她是博士 is completely natural even though there is no separate word for a.

Chinese often expresses this kind of sentence more directly:

• 她是博士。 = She is a PhD / She is a doctor (in the academic sense)

You do not need to translate every English word one by one.