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こん。ちょっと質問があります。
★ Hello. I've got a quick question.

この曲、「僕に彼女ができたんだ」と呼んでいますが、タイトルの意味が分からない。
★ Even though the song is called 「僕に彼女ができたんだ」, I don't know what the title means.

暇があったら、手伝ってください。日本語と英語、どっちでもいい。
★ If you've got some time help me out. Japanese, English - whatever is cool.

よろしく！
★ Thanks!

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  • 本当に「こん」を挨拶にできるの？ O_o – rintaun Nov 26 '13 at 10:50
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    @rintaun 「こん」はネット用語（チャット用語）なので、実生活で「こん」という挨拶はしません。 – user1016 Nov 26 '13 at 12:58
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    More importantly, Japanese speakers would never say ありがとう the way you did at the end of your question. ありがとう is said ONLY after the service has been rendered. – l'électeur Nov 27 '13 at 3:29
  • えぇ。知らなかった、それ。サンキュー！ – X5748 Nov 27 '13 at 10:13
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This できる means "to come into existence".

「僕に彼女ができたんだ」 therefore means "I've got a girlfriend now." since it would not be natural to say in English the literal translation version "A girlfriend has come into existence for me."

More examples:

「今日新しい友だちができた。」

「もうすぐここにラーメン屋ができるらしい。」= "I hear there will be a ramen shop here soon."

「OMG, こどもができちゃった！」= "I/She got pregnant!" I am sure some of you have heard the word 「できちゃった婚」 or 「できちゃった結婚」 ("shotgun marriage"). It comes from this ｛できる｝.

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  • I always thought the literal translation was "I made a girlfriend". Is that wrong? – Darius Jahandarie Nov 26 '13 at 23:17
  • That would be 作った. If it were literally "I made a girlfriend" "I" would be the subject – ssb Nov 26 '13 at 23:42
  • @ssb Sorry, I didn't mean literal in the syntactic sense, just as far as the meaning of this できる. – Darius Jahandarie Nov 27 '13 at 1:12

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