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Differences between 青年 and 男子

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Dante404
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Posts: 6
Joined: October 9th, 2014 9:46 pm

Differences between 青年 and 男子

Postby Dante404 » June 29th, 2015 8:08 pm

Hello, I've looked up both 青年 and 男子 in the dictionary, and it seems to be that they have exactly the same meaning: Youth, young man.
I can't find the difference anywhere. Could anybody tell me in which contexts is better to use one or another?
For example, could 男子 be used talking about a man in his twenties?  

Thanks in advance.

thegooseking
Expert on Something
Posts: 216
Joined: October 17th, 2008 8:24 pm

Re: Differences between 青年 and 男子

Postby thegooseking » June 30th, 2015 2:02 pm

dante404さん、

It's just a feeling, but I feel like the difference is in what they're being compared to. To me, it feels like 男子 is a young man (i.e. as opposed to a young woman), while 青年 is a young man (i.e. as opposed to a child or an old man).

This can be seen in other compounds where they appear. For instance, 男子禁制 means "women only" (literally, "men excluded"), while 青年輩 means "young people" collectively.

小狼

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community.japanese
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Posts: 2704
Joined: November 16th, 2012 8:54 am

Re: Differences between 青年 and 男子

Postby community.japanese » July 4th, 2015 5:59 am

dante404さん
こんにちは。
I think 小狼さん explained it well.

小狼さん,
どうもありがとうございました。
:)
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

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