Context determines which. 彼女 or even just 女 can be used to mean girlfriend, the latter is crude though. Think of it as the concept of one’s “woman” because it is not that far off. Something like 彼女ならもういるよ。will only be thought of as “girlfriend” while 彼女はそんなことはしないよ. is “She” most of the time…
To add: You normally use names in Japanese when referring to people, so do not go thinking that every use of 彼女 is going to be a puzzle.
Context. You do this so often and so automatically in your native language you never notice it.
In the below sentences, which X means “girlfriend” or “she”?
“I am taking my X out to dinner on valentine’s day. X loves Italian food.”
“Every time I see my grandma X keeps asking if I have a X yet, so embarassing.”
​
In the below sentences, does “leaves” mean the plural of leaf, or “to depart”?
“Hey, could you rake up the leaves this afternoon?”
“And then he just leaves without saying anything!”
​
In the below sentences, is there a single meaning for the word “shot”? How do you know what it means in each case?
“I’ll have a shot of bourbon.”
“My grandpa got shot three times during the war.”
“And so like, the rest of the team are screaming, ‘take the shot!’, and he just *stands* there.”
“I got a flu shot yesterday so my arm’s a bit sore.”
​
There might be occasional cases where it could be ambigious. In those cases, you would simply rephrase to make it clear what you were saying.
>how to determine the meaning of it
Context. Also, you rarely use “she” in a normal conversation because you would know who you’re talking about.
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Context determines which. 彼女 or even just 女 can be used to mean girlfriend, the latter is crude though. Think of it as the concept of one’s “woman” because it is not that far off. Something like 彼女ならもういるよ。will only be thought of as “girlfriend” while 彼女はそんなことはしないよ. is “She” most of the time…
To add: You normally use names in Japanese when referring to people, so do not go thinking that every use of 彼女 is going to be a puzzle.
Context. You do this so often and so automatically in your native language you never notice it.
In the below sentences, which X means “girlfriend” or “she”?
“I am taking my X out to dinner on valentine’s day. X loves Italian food.”
“Every time I see my grandma X keeps asking if I have a X yet, so embarassing.”
​
In the below sentences, does “leaves” mean the plural of leaf, or “to depart”?
“Hey, could you rake up the leaves this afternoon?”
“And then he just leaves without saying anything!”
​
In the below sentences, is there a single meaning for the word “shot”? How do you know what it means in each case?
“I’ll have a shot of bourbon.”
“My grandpa got shot three times during the war.”
“And so like, the rest of the team are screaming, ‘take the shot!’, and he just *stands* there.”
“I got a flu shot yesterday so my arm’s a bit sore.”
​
There might be occasional cases where it could be ambigious. In those cases, you would simply rephrase to make it clear what you were saying.
>how to determine the meaning of it
Context. Also, you rarely use “she” in a normal conversation because you would know who you’re talking about.