Difference of 余 and 我

Question

余 and 我 both mean I. But I still can't understand the real difference. Also, I want an example sentence. When I use Google Translate and Bing Translator, the result is same.

Answer 1

As Stan said 余 is archaic and only found in literature. As in

余既为此志。——明· 归有光《项脊轩志》

我 is what modern-day Chinese use as the first-person pronoun.

我喜欢吃苹果。

I asked some Chinese friends and they only recognized 余 as a surname or meaning surplus or extra.

Answer 2

English also has ancient words, right? For example, English people used to use the word thou rather than you. It is the same in Chinese. 余 is the ancient word of 我.

Answer 3

我 is also used in ancient times. For example, in 戰國策 之 鄒忌諷齊王納諫

鄒忌脩八尺有餘，而形貌昳麗。朝服衣冠，窺鏡，謂其妻曰：「我孰與城北徐公美？」其妻曰：「君美甚，徐公何能及君也。」城北徐公，齊國之美麗者也。忌不自信，而復問其妾曰：「吾孰與徐公美？」妾曰：「徐公何能及君也。」旦曰，客從外來，與坐談。問之曰：「吾與徐公孰美？」客曰：「徐公不若君之美也。」明日，徐公來，熟視之，自以為不如；窺鏡而自視，又弗如遠甚。暮寢而思之曰：「吾妻之美我者，私我也；妾之美我者，畏我也；客之美我者，欲有求於我也。」於是入朝見威王曰：「臣誠知不如徐公美。臣之妻私臣，臣之妾畏臣，臣之客欲有求於臣，皆以美於徐公。今齊，地方千里，百二時城。宮婦左右，莫不私王；朝廷之臣，莫不畏王；四境之內，莫不有求於王。由此觀之，王之蔽甚矣。」王曰：「善！」乃下令：「群臣吏民能面刺寡人之過者，受上賞；上書諫寡人者，受中賞；能謗議於市朝，聞寡人之耳者，受下賞。」令初下，群臣進諫，門庭若市；數月之後，時時而間進；諅年之後，雖欲言，無可進者。燕、趙、韓、魏聞之，皆朝於齊。此所謂戰勝於朝廷。

Answer 4

Practically, 余 is no long in use unless in poems or classic literature.

It would be more interesting to look at the various characters refer to 'I'.

我 is certainly the most widely used one.
咱 is colloquial.
俺 is more colloquial and vulgar.
阿拉 is commonly used in Shanghainese dialect.
吾 is in Cantonese dialect.

– and the list goes on.

Answer 5

Recent researches show that there are differences in grammatical forms of the 2 characters in ancient scripts before or in Qin Dynasty (approx. before 207 B.C.), but in later classical Chinese literature, they are synonyms.

In today's language, 余 as a pronoun has died and only can be seen when people try to write in classical Chinese.