Learn Hardcore Japanese: kanozyo no koibito ha onazi daigaku no gakusei desu. - Her partner is a student at the same university.

彼女の恋人 – her boyfriend/partner
- 彼女 – she / her
- の – connects 彼女 to 恋人 (possession/association)
- 恋人 – romantic partner (boyfriend or girlfriend)
は – topic marker: “as for her boyfriend…”
同じ大学の学生 – a student of the same university
- 同じ – same
- 大学 – university
- の – connects 大学 to 学生 (student of the university)
- 学生 – student
です – polite “is / am / are”

So Japanese is basically:
[Her boyfriend] (topic) [same-university’s student] is (polite).

What does the particle の mean here, and why is it used twice?

の is a particle that mainly links two nouns. Common functions:

Possession / belonging
- 彼女の恋人 – 彼女 (she/her) + 恋人 (lover)
  → boyfriend/girlfriend of her → her boyfriend / her partner
Noun–noun description / “of”
- 大学の学生 – 大学 (university) + 学生 (student)
  → student of a university → university student / a student at the university

So in this sentence:

First の: connects 彼女 to 恋人 (her → boyfriend)
Second の: connects 大学 to 学生 (university → student)

They are the same particle doing the same linking job in two different noun phrases.

What is the difference between は and が here? Why is it 恋人は and not 恋人が?

In this sentence は marks the topic, not just the grammatical subject.

は: “as for X…”, sets what we are talking about (topic).
が: usually marks the subject, often introducing new, specific information or focusing on who/what does something.

彼女の恋人は同じ大学の学生です。
→ “As for her boyfriend, (he) is a student at the same university.”

Using が:

彼女の恋人が同じ大学の学生です。
This can sound like you are identifying who the student is (e.g., in answer to “Who is the student from the same university?”). It emphasizes that her boyfriend is the one who is the student.

In normal “X is Y” descriptions, は is the default when you are just talking about something and describing it.

Does 恋人 mean “boyfriend” or “girlfriend”? Why isn’t 彼氏 used?

恋人 (こいびと) is gender‑neutral: it means “lover,” “romantic partner,” “significant other,” etc. It can refer to:

a boyfriend
a girlfriend
a partner, without specifying gender

彼氏 (かれし) specifically means boyfriend (male partner).
彼女 (かのじょ) can mean she/her or girlfriend (female partner), depending on context.

Here, 彼女の恋人 is “her romantic partner.” In English we almost always specify “boyfriend” or “girlfriend,” but Japanese doesn’t have to. If the speaker knows the partner is male and wants to say “boyfriend,” they might say:

彼女の彼氏 – her boyfriend

But 彼女の恋人 is more neutral and slightly more formal/standard.

Does 彼女 here mean “she” or “girlfriend”? How do I tell?

彼女 (かのじょ) has two main uses:

she / her – third‑person pronoun
girlfriend – someone’s female partner

In 彼女の恋人:

彼女の is “her” (possessive “she”)
恋人 is “lover / romantic partner”

If 彼女 here meant “girlfriend,” the phrase would literally be “the girlfriend’s lover,” which is a strange and unlikely meaning. So context + grammar tell us it’s she/her, not “girlfriend.”

If you wanted to say “her girlfriend” (female partner), you might instead clarify with other words or context, because 彼女の彼女 is grammatically possible but confusing and rarely used in everyday speech.

What exactly does 同じ mean here? “Same as what”?

同じ (おなじ) means same / identical.

In 同じ大学の学生, it’s “a student of the same university.” But same as what is decided by context, not by the word alone. For example:

Same university as the speaker
Same university as another person just mentioned
Same university as the listener

So the sentence by itself just says “a student of the same university”.
Conversation would usually make it clear whether it means “the same university as me,” “as you,” “as her,” etc.

Why is there の between 大学 and 学生, instead of something like a word for “at”?

Japanese often uses Noun + の + Noun where English would use:

“Noun + at Noun”
“Noun + from Noun”
“Noun + of Noun”

大学の学生 literally is “university’s student,” which naturally corresponds to:

“a student at the university”
“a university student”
“a student of the university”

There is no separate word for “at” here; the relationship is handled by の and understood from the noun pair 大学 – 学生.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” in this sentence?

Japanese does not have articles like a/an or the. Nouns are generally neutral; whether you translate them as “a” or “the” in English depends on context.

学生 by itself can be:
- “a student”
- “the student”
- just “student” (in a general sense)

In this sentence, natural English is often:

“Her boyfriend is a student at the same university.”

But in a context where it’s clear which specific person you’re talking about, you might also translate it as:

“Her boyfriend is the student from the same university.”

The Japanese sentence doesn’t choose; it just says 学生.

Can I say 大学の同じ学生 instead of 同じ大学の学生?

No; 大学の同じ学生 is not natural here and changes the structure.

In Japanese, modifiers come before the noun they modify:

同じ大学 – “the same university” (同じ modifies 大学)
同じ大学の学生 – “student of the same university”

If you say 大学の同じ学生, 同じ is now modifying 学生, which could be interpreted as “the same student (as before) of the university,” a different, strange idea in most contexts.

To say “student of the same university,” the normal and correct order is:

同じ大学の学生

Is です necessary? What happens if I use だ or nothing at all?

です is the polite form of “to be.”

学生です。 – polite: “(I/He/She) is a student.”
学生だ。 – plain: “(I/He/She) is a student.” (casual / often used by men, or in informal writing)
学生。 – very casual, often in spoken language with context making the copula obvious.

In this sentence:

彼女の恋人は同じ大学の学生です。 – polite, appropriate in most situations.
彼女の恋人は同じ大学の学生だ。 – casual/plain, used with friends, in fiction, diaries, etc.
彼女の恋人は同じ大学の学生。 – quite casual, often spoken; feels incomplete in formal writing.

So です is not grammatically required in all registers, but it is the standard choice for polite, clear speech.

How would I make this sentence past tense, like “Her boyfriend was a student at the same university”?

You change です (present polite) to でした (past polite):

彼女の恋人は同じ大学の学生でした。
→ “Her boyfriend was a student at the same university.”

The rest of the sentence (彼女の恋人, 同じ大学の学生) stays the same; only the copula changes.

Could I leave out 彼女 and just say 恋人は同じ大学の学生です。?

Yes, that’s possible, and it’s natural if context is clear.

恋人は同じ大学の学生です。
→ “(My/your/his/her) partner is a student at the same university.”

Japanese often drops information that is obvious from context, including who the partner belongs to. If you’ve just been talking about “her,” listeners will assume 恋人 means “her partner.”

However, if you need to make it explicit that it’s her, keep 彼女の:

彼女の恋人は同じ大学の学生です。
→ explicitly “Her boyfriend/partner is a student at the same university.”