彼の
kare no[ka̠ɾe̞ no̞]
The Japanese word for "his" is 彼の (kare no).
彼の is an attributive form used to indicate that something belongs to him.
Meaning: attributive: belonging to him (det)
How does it change in a sentence?
The particle 'no' is used to turn the pronoun 'kare' into the possessive 'his'. While 'kare' means 'he', adding 'no' is necessary to express possession, similar to the English 'of him'. The construction 彼のもの translates to his thing.
How do you pronounce it?
kare no
Did you know?
- Japanese possesses no grammatical gender, so 彼 was popularized during the Meiji era to better translate Western languages like English which distinguish between 'he' and 'she'.
- In romantic contexts, 彼 is commonly used as a shorthand noun meaning 'boyfriend', so saying 彼の can imply 'my boyfriend's' depending on the situation.
- The character 彼 is shared with Chinese, where it originally meant 'that' or 'distant', reflecting the pronoun's role in pointing to someone away from the speaker.
Examples in context
- 彼の名前は？What is his name?This sentence is useful for asking about someone's name using 彼の.Tatoeba #2125129 by bunbuku, translation #287637 by CK
- 彼の靴は茶色だ。His shoes are brown.This sentence is useful for describing the color of his shoes using 彼の.Tatoeba #117753 by bunbuku, translation #285911 by CK
- あれは彼の家だ。That is his house.This sentence is useful for identifying his house using 彼の.Tatoeba #229674 by bunbuku, translation #67034 by CK
- 彼の本His book
- 彼のものはどれですか？Which one is his?
- 彼の車His car
- 彼のやつ、かっこいいね！His guy/thing looks cool!
- 1004 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Ren and Yui are talking about a friend's new car.
- 蓮 Ren彼の車、かっこいいよね。Kare no kuruma, kakkoii yo ne.His car is cool, isn't it?
- 結衣 Yui本当だね。青い色がきれい。Hontou da ne. Aoi iro ga kirei.It really is. The blue color is beautiful.
- 蓮 Ren彼の趣味は車なんだって。Kare no shumi wa kuruma nan datte.I heard his hobby is cars.
- 結衣 Yuiあんなに詳しいなら納得だね。Anna ni kuwashii nara nattoku da ne.That makes sense if he knows that much.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “his” translations and entries 彼の, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
