그녀
Appearance
Korean
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Calque from Japanese 彼女 (kanojo), coined by Kim Dong-in.[1] 그 (geu) + 녀(女) (nyeo). The noun meaning was created due to the literary overtones of the pronoun, possibly with influence from Japanese 彼女 (kanojo).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): [kɯɲʌ̹]
Audio: (file)
- Phonetic hangul: [그녀]
Romanizations | |
---|---|
Revised Romanization? | geunyeo |
Revised Romanization (translit.)? | geunyeo |
McCune–Reischauer? | kŭnyŏ |
Yale Romanization? | kunye |
Pronoun
[edit]Noun
[edit]- (rather colloquial) girlfriend; crush; a woman that one is romantically interested in
Usage notes
[edit]- While comparable to Japanese 彼女, 그녀 (geunyeo) is significantly more unnatural in speech, in both pronoun and noun senses. The pronoun in particular is almost never used in speech unless in a deliberately literary register.
- The pronoun is often followed by the topic marker 는 (neun), which makes it indistinguishable in speech from the vulgar phrase 그년은 (geunyeon-eun, “as for that bitch”), which is much more widespread in the spoken language. This may contribute to speakers avoiding the pronoun.