Third Person Pronouns

The "third person pronouns" in Japanese, san'ninshou daimeishi 三人称代名詞, are a bit complicated.

The words kare 彼 and kanojo 彼女 mean "he" and "she," respectively, but they also mean "boyfriend" and "girlfriend," respectively.

There's no "it" pronoun in Japanese.

Often, someone is referred to in third person neutrally, by the noun phrase "that person," ano hito あの人, ano ko あの子, or aitsu あいつ. Sometimes, by yatsu やつ, which refers to an individual person or thing.

Japanese is a pronoun dropping language, which means there are sentences you'd use "he" or "she" in English that you wouldn't use a pronoun in Japanese.

• Grammar
• Boyfriend and Girlfriend

Grammar

Japanese doesn't have separate subject and object pronouns. The word kare means both "he" as subject and "him" as object. The word kanojo means both "she" and "her."

• kare wa Tarou desu
  彼は太郎です
  He is Tarou.
• kanojo wa Hanako desu
  彼女は花子です
  She is Hanako.
• kare/kanojo wo tasukeru
  彼／彼女を助ける
  To help him/her.

These words are turned into possessive third person pronouns through the no の particle, which creates no-adjectives.

• kare no imouto
  彼の妹
  His younger sister.
• kanojo no otouto
  彼女の弟
  Her younger brother.
• ano hito no kuruma
  あの人の車
  The car of that person.
  That person's car.

These words are turned into plural through the pluralizing suffixes ~tachi ～達 and ~ra ～ら.

• kare-ra
  彼ら
  He and the others. They.
• kanojo-tachi
  彼女たち
  She and the others. They.
• ano hito-tachi
  あの人達
  Those people.

These words don't mean "they" are all male or female, but that there's one male person, one kare, or one female person, one kanojo, and she's part of a group that we're referring to.

• kare-ra no mokuteki
  彼らの目的
  Their objective.
• kanojo-tachi no yukue
  彼女たちの行方
  Their whereabouts.
  • In this sentence, we're talking about "she and the others," so there's one "she," kanojo, plus a group of people of unspecified gender.

In Japanese, it's not necessary to use a pronoun if it's implicit who we're referring to. For example, when answering a question:

• ano hito wa nani wo shite-iru?
  あの人は何をしている？
  What is that person doing?
• benkyou shite-iru
  勉強している
  [That person] is studying.
  [He] is studying.
  [She] is studying.

By the same principle, Japanese doesn't have a pronoun "it." The fact we're talking about "it" is implicit.

• kawaii
  可愛い
  [It] is cute.

Boyfriend and Girlfriend

The words kare and kanojo can also mean "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" in Japanese, respectively. Besides them:

• kareshi
  彼氏
  Boyfriend.
• booifurendo
  ボーイフレンド
  Boyfriend.
  (katakanization.)
• garufurendo
  ガルフレンド
  Girlfriend.
  (katakanization.)
• koibito
  恋人
  Lover.

The word kareshi is preferred to say "boyfriend."

• moto-kare
  元カレ
  Former boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend.
• moto-kareshi
  元彼氏
  (same meaning.)
• moto-kanojo
  元彼女
  Former girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend.

Some example phrases:

• kareshi/kanojo ga iru
  彼／彼女がいる
  To have a boyfriend/girlfriend.
  (existence verb, double subject construction.)
• kareshi/kanojo ga dekita
  彼氏／彼女ができた
  To have made a boyfriend/girlfriend.
• mae no kareshi/kanojo
  前の彼氏／彼女
  [My] boyfriend/girlfriend of before.
  [My] previous boyfriend/girlfriend.