What nuance does ガールフレンド have?


Does ガールフレンド have a meaning of a female friend (like [girl
friend](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/girl_friend)), or a female romantic
partner?

Someone told me it had the former meaning, and I should use "彼女" for a
romantic partner. However, the Japanese edition of Wikipedia seems to imply
that
[ガールフレンド](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89)
means romantic partner, as does the [Tanaka
corpus](http://jisho.org/sentences?jap=%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89).
Neither the English nor Japanese edition of Wiktionary have an entry on
ガールフレンド.




彼女 is the word you want to use. Use of ガールフレンド is very uncommon now and would
sound a bit like a misguided effort by an old person to sound hip, or
something. If you use it though, it will mean romantic partner. To refer to
female friends, people use 女友達.

