그녀

Korean

Etymology

Calque of Japanese 彼女 (kanojo, “she”, pronoun), coined by Kim Dong-in prior to 1951 as 그 (geu, “that”) +‎ 녀(女) (nyeo, “woman, girl”). The noun meaning was created due to the literary overtones of the pronoun, possibly with influence from Japanese 彼女 (kanojo, “girlfriend”).

Pronunciation

• (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

그녀 • (geunyeo) (hanja 그女)

1. (literary) she

   Synonym: (literary, archaic) 궐녀(厥女) (gwollyeo)

   그녀는 힘으로는 그를 이길 수 없기에 다른 방법을 강구해야 했다.

   Geunyeo-neun him-euro-neun geu-reul igil su eopgi-e dareun bangbeob-eul gangguhaeya haetda.

   She couldn't beat him with her strength, so she had to figure out another way.

   그녀는 나에게 어떻게 수영하는지를 가르쳤다.

   Geunyeo-neun na-ege eotteoke suyeonghaneunji-reul gareucheotda.

   She taught me how to swim.

   그녀의 추억은 슬픔을 띤 것이었다.

   Geunyeoui chueog-eun seulpeum-eul ttin geos-ieotda.

   Her memory was tinged with sorrow.

Noun

그녀 • (geunyeo) (hanja 그女)

1. (rather colloquial) girlfriend; crush; a woman that one is romantically interested in

   첫눈에 반한 그녀

   cheonnun-e banhan geunyeo

   the girl that I fell in love with at first sight

Usage notes

• While comparable to Japanese 彼女 (kanojo, “she; girlfriend”), Korean 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.