ahibba Wrote:

magamo Wrote:The core meaning of 女の子 is a girl or girls in the sense of a female child/children. Female kids are 女の子. Female babies can also be referred to as 女の子.

The word can also refer to ladies or sometimes even middle age women. When 女の子 is used this way, most of the time the speaker is implying femininity, girlishness, etc. Nuances and connotations can vary depending on the sex of the speaker for obvious reasons. One of the realistic situations where you hear 女の子 as a lady/ladies is when a male employee/employer is talking about female colleagues as in うちの会社は優秀な女の子が多いよ (We have a lot of excellent female workers). You may also hear the word when guys are talking about "chicks."

Japanese is very similar to my language in these concepts.

Native English speakers: how do you use the word "girl"? can't you describe a female in her twenties or thirties as a girl?

I am not a native English speaker, but I think 'girl' is much more acceptable to describe women in their twenties/thirties than 'boy' is for guys in their twenties/thirties. Most would take it as an insult, I'd think. Same for Japanese.

I use 'girl' to refer to absolutely any age. There's a threshold somewhere in the 30s where I may use woman/lady, but there's never an actual cut-off point for the 'girl,' with me, especially when I'm refering only to sex ("you're a girl"). 'Boy' is not a particularly common word above young teenagers. 'Guy' is standard, and fits all ages above the very young. Girls will sometimes use 'boy' for any age category, but this is usually within the context of romantic interest, the way Magamo described 男の子 in Japanese. Especially common when being general about romantic interest ("I like boys").

Spending time in English/Japanese chatrooms, it's incredibly common for Japanese women to act mildly offended by all the English speakers calling them 'girls' offhandedly. A surprisingly large point of cultural misunderstanding. I've seen several conversations start up about it.