What does “koibito” mean in Japanese?
Japanese people say “koibito” to mean ‘girlfriend’, ‘boyfriend’, or ‘lover’ in Japanese. In this blog post, I will explain this word in detail based on its kanji expression. And also, I will explain its related words which Japanese people often use. Let’s get started!
Contents
- Definition and meanings of “koibito”
- “Koibito” in kanji
- Definition and meaning of “kareshi”
- “Kareshi” in kanji
- Definition and meaning of “kanojo”
- “Kanojo” in kanji
- Summary
Definition and meanings of “koibito”
Let me start with the definition and meanings of “koibito”.
- koibito – 恋人 (こいびと) : a noun meaning ‘girlfriend’, ‘boyfriend’, or ‘lover’ in Japanese.
Its meaning can vary depending on the situation and context. To understand this point clearly, let me explain its kanji characters in detail, one by one.
“Koibito” in kanji
The kanji expression of “koibito” consists of the following two characters:
- 恋 : a kanji character widely used in Japanese words related to a feeling of love or love itself. Normally, however, this kanji doesn’t refer to love to family members.
- 人 : a kanji character widely used to mean a person or people. This kanji can also be found in other words like “hito“, “otona“, and “nihonjin“.
From these two kanji characters, we can understand that “koibito” literally means a person to love. In addition, we can see that it doesn’t contain any word or nuance determining the gender of a lover. For this reason, it can mean a lover regardless of the gender. We can use it to mean ‘girlfriend’, ‘boyfriend’, or ‘lover’ in Japanese.
When we meet new kanji expressions, we should check their kanji characters in detail to understand their meanings clearly and deeply. In many cases, kanji characters tell us a lot about meanings of words they form. Actually, here, we could get the better understanding of “koibito” through the detailed kanji check above.
Then, let me explain how to use “koibito” through the example sentence below.
Example #1: how to use “koibito”
kare wa watashi no koibito desu – 彼は私の恋人です (かれはわたしのこいびとです)
He is my lover.
Below are the new words used in the example sentence.
- kare – 彼 (かれ) : a pronoun meaning ‘he’ in Japanese.
- wa – は : a binding particle working as a case marker or topic marker. In the example, this is used after “kare” to make the subject word in the sentence.
- watashi – 私 (わたし) : a pronoun meaning ‘I’ in Japanese.
- no – の : a case particle used after a noun or pronoun to make its possessive case. In the example, this is used after “watashi” to make its possessive case, “watashi no“, which means ‘my’ in Japanese.
- desu – です : an auxiliary verb used after a noun or adjective to make it polite. Probably this is well known as a part of Japanese desu form. In the example, this is used after the noun phrase, “watashi no koibito”, to make it sound polite.
This is a typical usage of “koibito”. In this example, it works as a part of the commonly-used expression, “watashi no koibito”, which means ‘my lover’ in Japanese. It has been translated as “lover”, but from the context it could also be interpreted as ‘boyfriend’. When we want to say “lover” in Japanese regardless of the gender, this word would be the best choice.
In the rest part of this blog post, I will explain a couple of words related to “koibito”. The first one is “kareshi”.
Definition and meaning of “kareshi”
Below are the definition and meaning of “kareshi”.
- kareshi – 彼氏 (かれし) : a noun meaning ‘boyfriend’ in Japanese.
This is a specific word for ‘boyfriend’. It is a coined word, so checking its kanji characters in detail doesn’t make much sense. Yet, let me explain them for a more clear understanding.
“Kareshi” in kanji
The kanji expression of “kareshi” consists of the following two characters:
- 彼 : a kanji character used to refer to something distant from the speaker and the listener. Based on this concept, this kanji can refer to a person distant from both the speaker and the listener. It is “he”.
- 氏 : a kanji character often used as an honorific suffix in Japanese.
From these two kanji characters, we can understand that “kareshi” is a polite and honorific word for a man. This kanji concept isn’t completely in line with the meaning, but still close, I think. Perhaps “kareshi” started to be used by a women to call her boyfriend in an honorific way.
To understand the usage of “kareshi”, let me paraphrase the last example with it as follows.
Example #2: how to say “boyfriend” in Japanese
kare wa watashi no kareshi desu – 彼は私の彼氏です (かれはわたしのかれしです)
He is my boyfriend.
“Kareshi” is suitable for casual situations. Compared to the last example, therefore, this one sounds a bit more casual.
Sometimes, Japanese people use the shortened form of “kareshi”. “Kare” is it. Unfortunately, however, it is completely the same as the pronoun meaning ‘he’ in Japanese. So, we need to be careful with the situation and context where it’s used.
Next, then, let me explain how to specifically say “girlfriend” in Japanese.
Definition and meaning of “kanojo”
Below are the definition and meaning of “kanojo”.
- kanojo – 彼女 (かのじょ) : a noun meaning ‘girlfriend’ in Japanese.
This is a specific word for ‘girlfriend’. To understand this word more clearly, let me explain its kanji characters in detail, one by one.
“Kanojo” in kanji
The kanji expression of “kanojo” consists of the following two characters:
- 彼 : the same as explained above. This can refer to something distant from the speaker and the listener.
- 女 : a kanji character widely used to mean ‘woman’ in Japanese. This kanji can also be found in other words like “joshi“.
From these two kanji characters, we can understand that “kanojo” literally means a woman distant from the speaker. This kanji concept seems to be different from the meaning of ‘girlfriend’.
To tell the truth, “kanojo” is a commonly-used pronoun meaning ‘she’ in Japanese. So, the kanji concept above is completely in line with the meaning. In the past, Japanese people started to use this pronoun as a kind of slang word to imply ‘girlfriend’.
Example #3: how to say “girlfriend” in Japanese
watashi no kanojo wa kawaii desu – 私の彼女は可愛いです (わたしのかのじょはかわいいです)
My girlfriend is cute.
Below is the new word used in the example sentence.
- kawaii – 可愛い (かわいい) : an i-adjective meaning ‘cute’ in Japanese.
This is a typical usage of “kanojo”. When it is used together with a possessive case word like “watashi no”, most probably it is a noun meaning ‘girlfriend’.
Summary
In this blog post, I’ve explained “koibito” in detail based on its kanji expression. And also, I’ve explained its related words. Let me summarize them as follows.
- koibito – 恋人 (こいびと) : a noun meaning ‘girlfriend’, ‘boyfriend’, or ‘lover’ in Japanese. These two kanji characters literally mean a person to love. This word doesn’t contain any word determining the gender of a lover, so it can refer to a lover regardless of the gender.
- kareshi – 彼氏 (かれし) : a noun meaning ‘boyfriend’ in Japanese.
- kanojo – 彼女 (かのじょ) : a noun meaning ‘girlfriend’ in Japanese. We need to be careful with the situation and context where this word is used, as it is completely the same as the pronoun meaning ‘she’ in Japanese.
Hope my explanations are understandable and helpful for Japanese learners.
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