彼
かれ
hepburn kare
he, him, boyfriend
Part of speech · pronoun
Pattern visualization
no decomposition available
Examples
- 彼は学生です。He is a student.
- 彼ができました。I got a boyfriend.
Collocations
彼は (kare wa, he-topic)彼の (kare no, his)彼ができる (kare ga dekiru, get a boyfriend)彼氏 (kareshi, boyfriend — explicit)元彼 (motokare, ex-boyfriend)
Mnemonic
彼 kare has a double life: (1) third-person masculine pronoun "he", (2) "boyfriend". Context disambiguates — 彼ができた = "I got a boyfriend". Unlike English "he", Japanese rarely uses 彼 in everyday conversation about acquaintances — names or roles (山田さん, 部長) are preferred. The "boyfriend" reading is so strong that the pronoun use feels somewhat literary or distancing.
Quick check
Most natural meaning of 彼ができました?