I am stumped on the difference between these three words 女, 女の子, and 女子 . They all mean “Woman/Girl” in some context like both 女の子 and 女子 can be used for “young woman/young girl” (At least I think so).
Can someone explain the difference with these three words and some contextual sentences to show how to use them?
ありがとう
I have even come across (amongst native speakers) the simplest of them, 子. 
“I’m coocoo for 子子 puffs!”
女 = Female
女の子 = Girl
女子 = Woman
I would guess. But wouldn’t bother with it too much, many words are used interchangeably.
I’ve read that 女子 is mostly used for school aged girls.
That’s helpful. Thank you.
When we say school aged girls are we talking elementary, middle, or high school girls that use 女子 ?
I would probably use 女子 for high school girls in that case, and older. As in young woman. But Idk.
Ah, makes a bit more sense now. Thank you
In a manga I read, the girls are middle schoolers and they are referred to as 女子
Yeah, it’s a bit all over the place. I wouldn’t personally bother with it all that much.
Same discussion could be had with the words “Girl”/“Woman”/“Female”. All one could agree on is that a 90 year old woman, isn’t a girl. And that prepubescent girls aren’t “women”.
Yeah for sure, but I do translate the manga so I usually translate it like this:
子 = girl
女子 = girl
女の子 = girl
女 = woman
They’re just so interchangeable as you said so that’s why I usually use girl since it makes the most sense in the context
They’re interchangeable in English, yeah, but you don’t want to be using the wrong word in Japanese. Translating a manga and talking about someone in Japanese are very different cookies.
Yeah if I were to use Japanese I’d use 女 for an adult, 女の子 for a child and 女子 for a schoolgirl. I probably would rarely use the simple 子
Time for a repost of this might be in order:
Also, for other types of words to navigate the nuances of:
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