あいつ
あいつ
aitsu
= he; she; that guy; that person (informal, sometimes dismissive)
Aitsu (あいつ) means ‘that guy’ or ‘that person’ — a casual, rough-edged pronoun that signals familiarity, mild contempt, or affectionate exasperation. It’s the pronoun you use when ‘he’ or ‘she’ doesn’t quite carry the right attitude.
Aitsu (あいつ) is an informal third-person pronoun used to refer to someone not present in the conversation. It translates as ‘he,’ ‘she,’ ‘that person,’ or ‘that guy’ — but with a rough or casual edge that standard pronouns lack. Japanese has a pronoun distance system: koitsu (こいつ, this person — close), soitsu (そいつ, that person — medium distance), aitsu (あいつ, that person over there — far or absent), and doitsu (どいつ, which one/who). Aitsu sits at the far end of the physical or social distance scale. It can express irritation (aitsu wa itsumo osoi — ‘that guy is always late’), affection between close friends (aitsu, ii yatsu da yo ne — ‘that guy’s a good person’), or neutral reference to someone absent. Its register is decidedly informal — using it in formal speech would be inappropriate.
Never use aitsu in formal or polite speech — it can sound dismissive or disrespectful if used incorrectly. In professional contexts, use ano kata (あの方, that person — polite) or ano hito (あの人, that person — neutral). Reserve aitsu for close friends or peer conversation. Also note: in anime and manga, aitsu is very commonly used by characters who are rivals — it’s often the word a protagonist uses to refer to the antagonist they’re emotionally fixated on.
Casual / Social Media
あいつ、また遅刻してる。
Aitsu, mata chikoku shiteru.
That guy is late again.
Everyday use
あいつのこと、実はずっと気になってたんだよね。
Aitsu no koto, jitsu wa zutto ki ni nattetan da yo ne.
Honestly, I’ve had that person on my mind for a while now.
Formal / Cultural context
あいつには頭が上がらない。いつも助けてもらってるから。
Aitsu ni wa atama ga agaranai. Itsumo tasukete moratteru kara.
I can never look that person in the eye — they’re always bailing me out.
Japanese has a highly developed pronoun system that encodes social distance, respect level, and speaker gender. Aitsu sits at the informal, rough-and-tumble end of this spectrum. The full ko-so-a-do series (kore/sore/are/dore for things; koko/soko/asoko/doko for places; koitsu/soitsu/aitsu/doitsu for people) organizes the world by spatial and social proximity, and mastering this system is a mark of real Japanese fluency.
In manga and anime aimed at younger audiences, aitsu frequently appears in rival dynamics. When a protagonist says aitsu ni wa makenai (あいつには負けない, ‘I won’t lose to that guy’), the pronoun choice itself signals the emotional complexity: the rival is neither a close friend (koitsu) nor a distant stranger (ano hito) — they occupy a special, heated middle ground that only aitsu captures. This use pattern has made the pronoun strongly associated with rivalry, competition, and intense one-sided attention.
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