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I have some questions about relative clauses. How can I express "She is the girl I said (to you) I like"?

This is my attempt

僕はこの女子が好きなんですよ

I like this girl.

彼女は僕が好きな女子なんですよ

She is the girl I like.

彼女は僕が[...]女子なんですよ

She is the girl whom I said I like.

I don't know how to fill the blank here. I thought something like

彼女は僕が好きだと言った女子なんですよ

It makes me confused because it can mean "She is the girl whom I said to her I like her." Am I understanding「僕が好きだと言った女子」correctly?

Another question, if I turn this clause「僕が好きだと言った女子」from the sentence above into a full sentence like this「女子は僕が好きだと言った」. Does this sentence mean "She said she likes me"? I think this meaning is completely different from the original clause.

Jimmy Yang
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  • You can’t really use 女子 unless the girl and either you or the listener have the same attribution like student or employee. It’s not girls in general but female member of some scheme regardless of age. – user4092 Apr 04 '21 at 03:24

1 Answers1

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彼女は僕が好きだと言った女子だ is indeed an ambiguous sentence. It could mean what you wanted to mean, but it tends to mean "She is a girl who said she liked me."

An unambiguous version would be:

彼女がこの間言った僕の好きな女の子だ。
She is the girl I said (to you the other day) I like.

  • You need exhaustive-listing が, not は. (You want to say "She is the girl", not "She is a girl", right?)
  • 僕が好きな女の子 is ambiguous but 僕の好きな女の子 is not. See this answer and this.
  • この間言った ("I said the other day") is a relative clause that modifies 僕の好きな女の子 as a whole. この間 is there because it can specify the subject of 言った without saying 僕 twice. It's not wrong to say 彼女が僕が言った僕の好きな女の子だ, but it's slightly awkward to me.

(Off topic, but you should not use 女子 like that. See this answer.)

naruto
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  • Does saying 彼女が言った僕の好きな女の子だ also acceptable? – Jimmy Yang Apr 04 '21 at 04:23
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    @JimmyYang That would sound like there are two different women, like "(It) is the girl who she said I like". That's why we need some word that hints the subject of 言う is not 彼女. – naruto Apr 04 '21 at 04:26