Difference between 少年、 青年、 男の子、 and 男子

As the title says… there’s 4 of them. Jisho lists all of these as common words with nearly identical meanings, so I’m kinda curious as to what the difference between them is. Any help appreciated :slight_smile:

I feel like this is one of those ‘see them in usage a lot and you’ll get the vibes down’ kind of words.

少年 and 青年 specifically I think of as genre words for manga/anime/literary stuff - shounen is very 8-14 maybe and seinen is a bit more young (male) adult, say 14-18 or maybe as high as 20, 21

男の子 and 男子 is a bit more like… male? I guess? Young boy? That young kid who is a male? Or qualifying something as male, like 男子トイレ or 男子更衣室 . That’s the vibe I have.

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少年 is just more formal or literary. The general rule of thumb I have with Japanese is the more indirect a word is, the more formal it is.

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I watched My Hero Academia, All-Might calls Midoriya “緑谷少年” which is translated to “Young Midoriya” in English. 男の子 is more just “boy” or “kid that is a boy”. 少年 is like “young boy”. Like Jintor said 青年 is more young man and is usually only used for genre of art like a target audience. 男子 is more of an abbreviation of sorts for boys/men from my understanding.

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As someone who has seen men’s restrooms in Japan, I can confirm this statement.