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걔
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Korean
Etymology
Contraction of 그 애 (geu ae, “that kid”). Cognate with Jeju 가이 (gai).
Pronunciation
- (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): [kjɛ] ~ [kje̞]
- Phonetic hangul: [걔/계]
Pronoun
걔 • (gyae)
- (colloquial) that kid; he or she
Usage notes
In colloquial Korean, 걔 (along with deictic variants 얘 (yae), 쟤 (jae)) is the word that most closely resembles the English third-person pronoun. Despite the etymology, it can be used for all human referents with the restrictions given below, and is value-neutral.
Like 너 (neo, “you”), the use of 걔 implies that the person being referred to by the pronoun is of equal or lower social rank compared to the speaker. When referring to a social superior, speakers use either a title, a word referring to the relationship between the speaker and the addressee, or circumlocutional phrases like 그분 (geubun, “that [honored] person”). Thus a college student may use the pronoun 걔 to refer to a classmate, but their professor must be referred to as 교수님 (gyosunim, “honorable professor”).
The use of 걔 in socially impermissible contexts, such as when referring to a superior, should be understood as the speaker showing contempt for the referent.
See also
1 Not common.
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