saw this sentence and remembered that i had heard saying 女 by itself is usually quite rude, so normally people use 女人 to be more respectful. this leads me to my question: why is bunpro teaching me a rude sentence? or am i missing some nuance?
would be nice if someone could clear this one up for me, thanks!
女の子 is the expression here, and it’s not rude. By 女人 did you mean 女の人? That’s the standard generic term for woman. 女性 is another very common (slightly more formal) one.
I’ve never heard anyone actual use 女人 in every-day situations in Japanese. It is used in Chinese, though.
女の子 is a set expression that means “girl” but usage seems relatively flexible depending on perspective and social context. There have been situations in which I’ve seen women in their late 20s being called 女の子 but it doesn’t seem to be the norm. In those contexts I’ve also seen people drop the 女の further down the conversation and just use 子 which was very confusing the first time I saw this happen in a Google Review for a maid cafe. Like “Why would you call the staff member a child?”
女子 also means girls but seems to be narrower in the age range. An exception being set terms where 女子 can be used regardless of age.
For example:
女の人 seems to be the default relatively neutral go-to way to refer to a woman and appears to be safe in most contexts.
女性 appears to be more formal, I’ve mostly seen older people or news reports use this. I often watch street interview youtube channels and I have the general impression that a person over 60 will tend to use 女性 and 男性 more than younger people. Online newspapers also default to 女性 most of the times.
女 seems almost aggressive. outside of anime immersion, IRL I’ve only been in one situations where someone used it. It was a casual conversation with someone about a common twitter follow, she visibly struggled to say anything particularly nice about her, thought for a moment and said 面白い 女
okay dang i need both a bunpro subscription and a glasses prescription cause i did NOT see that it said 女の子. for some reason my brain saw 女 standing alone as a word (i guess cause it was followed by hirigana). that makes so much sense!
btw im 21 so girls my age would they be 女の人 or 女の子, cause it does feel unnatural that the word makes use of the “child” kanji.
I would use 女の人
I was very putt off by this at first, too. You’ll vibe it out over time when it is more natural to use what though.
For context on how flexible 女の子 is age-range wise sometimes depending on context: I was once completely drunk in Ikebukuro, missed my last train, didn’t want to risk vomiting in a taxi, walked past some shady love hotel that had a “stay until morning” rate advertised at the door and thought yeah I’ll just stay here and sleep it out. The receptionist asked me, a man in his late 30s, if a woman will join me later and used 女の子 when he asked this (something along the lines of あとで女の子いらっしゃいますか？)
It’s worth noting that the English word “girl” also refers to a child but is commonly used for adult women in casual speech.
true actually… now that you mention it if i were to refer to a woman by “girl” it could be any age up to like 30, so I’m guessing it’s actually very similar to this?
I can’t say how closely it maps to the English usage, but the idea behind it is certainly the same.
i noticed you didn’t mention 彼女. is this one less common? i know 彼女 can also mean girlfriend so is it usually reserved for this meaning?
Sometimes 子 itself refers to a young woman
Not even necessarily a young woman, just a woman younger than you. あの子 is also used like this.
彼女 does not mean woman
it means “her” or “girlfriend”
hence it didn’t make it to the list of how to say woman 
ah okay thanks:)