Opposite Words: Man/Woman, Boy/Girl

🎯 Big Picture

📖 Core Vocabulary Family

1. 남자 (man / male)

• 저 남자는 제 동생이에요. (That man is my younger brother.)

• 남자 화장실은 저쪽에 있어요. (The men's restroom is over there.)

2. 여자 (woman / female)

• 이 여자는 제 친구예요. (This woman is my friend.)

• 여자 친구가 생겼어요. (I got a girlfriend.)

3. 소년 (boy)

• 그 소년은 열두 살이에요. (That boy is twelve years old.)

• 소년은 공원에서 축구를 하고 있었어요. (The boy was playing soccer in the park.)

4. 소녀 (girl)

• 소녀는 그림을 그리고 있어요. (The girl is drawing a picture.)

• 그 소녀는 노래를 정말 잘 불러요. (That girl sings really well.)

5. 청년 (young man / youth)

• 청년들이 그 회사에 많이 지원했어요. (Many young people applied to that company.)

• 그는 청년 시절에 외국에서 살았어요. (He lived abroad during his youth.)

🗣️ How They Work in a Sentence

• 어릴 때 저는 소년이었고, 지금은 청년이 되었어요. (When I was young, I was a boy — now I've become a young man.)

• 남자와 여자, 소년과 소녀 모두 이 영화를 좋아해요. (Men and women, boys and girls — everyone likes this movie.)

• 이 사진 속의 소녀는 자라서 멋진 여자가 되었어요. (The girl in this photo grew up to become a wonderful woman.)

🧱 General Formation Rule

• 남(男)/여(女) are Sino-Korean roots meaning "male"/"female." They combine with nouns to mark gender: 남학생 (male student) / 여학생 (female student), 남자 화장실 / 여자 화장실.

• 자(子/者) at the end of 남자/여자 marks "person" — but don't confuse it with the 자 in titles like 학자 (scholar), which is a different usage of the same character.

• 소(少) means "young/few." 소년 (少年, boy) and 소녀 (少女, girl) are built from 소 + 년(年, year/person) or 녀(女, female).

• 청(靑) means "young/blue-green." 청년 (靑年) literally combines "young" + "person," which is why it can describe young people of any gender in modern usage.

• These Sino-Korean roots (남/여/소/청) appear in many other words too — recognizing them helps you guess the meaning of unfamiliar compounds.

🔁 Synonym Alert

• 남자 vs. 남성: 남자 is the everyday, conversational word for "man." 남성 is the more formal/written equivalent, common on official forms, in news articles, and in statistics (e.g., 남성 흡연율 = male smoking rate).

• 소년 vs. 사내아이: 소년 is the more formal/literary word for "boy," often used in writing or set phrases. 사내아이 (or its short form 사내애) is the everyday, spoken-language word you'd actually use to point at a kid on the street.

⚠️ Pitfalls to Dodge

1. Don't mix up 남자/여자 (everyday "man/woman") with 남성/여성 (formal/written register) — both are correct, but using 남성/여성 in casual chat can sound stiff, and vice versa on official documents.

2. 소년/소녀 describe a specific childhood-to-early-teens age range — they're not casual substitutes for 어린이 (child, broader) or 어른 (adult).

3. 청년 historically skewed male, but don't assume it always means "young man" — in policy and news contexts (청년 일자리, 청년 정책) it usually means "young people" of all genders.

4. 남자/여자 are not polite words for "person" — don't use them to mean "someone" in general; that's 사람.

5. 여자 친구 / 남자 친구 can mean either "girlfriend/boyfriend" (no space, one word) or literally "female/male friend" (with a space, in formal writing) — context is everything!

Exercise 1 — Translate It 🔤

Exercise 2 — Match the Meaning 🔗

Exercise 3 — Build the Compound 🧱

Exercise 4 — Sort by Register 📋

Exercise 5 — Fill in the Story 📖