Every spring, two cute and romantic events are celebrated in Japan: Valentine’s Day (February 14) and White Day (March 14).
On Valentine’s Day, the ladies express their love and admiration for the significant males in their life, usually by gifting them chocolate! Men are expected to respond a month later on White Day.
After this fateful exchange, some people fall in love and become couples! The word for ‘girlfriend’ in Japanese is kanojo (彼女 / かのじょ), but there are other ways to say it.
Let’s learn them together!
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Kanojo
彼女
Girlfriend
The standard Japanese word for ‘girlfriend’ is kanojo (彼女 / かのじょ). This word can be used by anyone in different settings.
Example:
Kono bentou wa watashi no kanojo ga tsukutte kureta.
この弁当は私の彼女が作ってくれた。
この べんとう は わたし の かのじょ が つくってくれた。
My girlfriend made this bento.
If you are already familiar with basic Japanese, you’ll know this word also means ‘her’. How can you tell them apart? It all comes down to the context.
Kanojo as in ‘girlfriend’ usually doesn’t follow an introduction to who the subject is. If you introduce someone first, then switch to using the pronoun kanojo, it’s usually understood as the pronoun ‘her’.
It’s okay to say watashi no kanojo (私の彼女 / わたしのかのじょ) to be clear that you are speaking about your girlfriend. Native speakers, though, tend to use a person’s name with the appropriate honorific instead of personal pronouns.
Koibito
恋人
Sweetheart
Koibito (恋人 / こいびと) is the Japanese word for ‘sweetheart’ or ‘lover’. It consists of the characters for love (恋) and person (人). It can be used for a