(no subject)

[bellezzarubata.livejournal.com]

Are there words for "boyfriend" and "girlfriend"? Perhaps something that is more romantic than friend? My assumption is that you can get a direct translation but not the true meaning. Hopefully I'm wrong!

Thanks

Comments

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

For young people, youth, it's usually this:
- друг, парень, приятель, мальчик (the latter is almost always used by parents/older people when they refer to their children or the teenagers)
- подруга, девушка, девочка (same here with the latter)

Sometimes жених and невеста are used. Not always in their regular meaning, though. At times (when both haven't yet decided to be married or the parents are against the relationship) the connotation may be negative.

For adults it's мужчина and женщина. Although, if they're young adults (20-25?), the previous can apply (but more rarely мальчик and девочка 'coz they aren't that young anymore). Of course, любовник and любовница can be used, but that usually bears some negative connotation (adultery).

There're also сожитель and сожительница in use. Those primarily mean that although the two live together, there's no legal relationship (and probably will never be) and the union is mostly about sex and/or some other form of exploitation or not very healthy relationship.

Let other more experienced in the matter human beings correct me. :)

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

Oh, btw, бойфренд and гёрлфренд are also in use. Mostly among the young people and those who know some English. Depending on who uses them and how (what context and intonation) they can bear their normal meaning or have a negative connotation.

[oryx_and_crake]

There are also (extremely stupid-sounding, if you ask me) "молчел" and "бф".

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

Yep, missed that one. And the full form (молодой человек) is pretty normal for a young adult too.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Life goes on -- these days, they say "мэче" (МЧ) :)

[oryx_and_crake]

oh my

[spiritrc.livejournal.com]

I though БФ was a glue :)

[adri-nwnderland.livejournal.com]

девушка, девочка

is the latter just a diminutized version of devushka?

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

No. Девочка is "little girl" or "baby girl."
In 1980s' slang, though, it acted as "girlfriend" (я приду со своей девочкой, if you were 17 and spoke to your peer at that time, did not mean "I will bring my little girl" but rather "I'll bring my girlfriend"... like "I'll bring my baby" :)

[gordin.livejournal.com]

To put it short, in 90% of cases one would say "его девушка", "её парень" - just don't forget that these words alone mean simply "a girl" and "a guy", only when you state they're "someones" it gets the girlfriend/boyfriend meaning.

[aromanov.livejournal.com]

absolutely. моя девушка. мой парень. его/ее девушка. ее/его парень. у меня есть девушка. у меня есть парень. and so on.

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

Depending on the age of your company. In my age (~ 23 y.o.) друг means *only* a friend. We say её молодой человек (её парень)/его девушка. I don't know, where does this meaning of друг comes from. It is in the textbook of my boyfriend (the textbook was made in 90-s). Also, my landlady and her family treated my friends (друзья) as my boyfriends, what offended me to death many times, since I have more than one male friend.

[dr0pbear.livejournal.com]

There are a couple of variants:
друг - возлЮбленный (if they are in love; literary), мой избрАнник, моя пАссия, моя половИнка
подруга - возлЮбленная, моя избрАнница, моя пАссия, моя половИнка

[alex-mashin.livejournal.com]

Also, "boyfriend" == "мой" or "хахаль".

[la-sincerite.livejournal.com]

"Хахаль" - very romantic, indeed :D
By the way, "ухажёр".

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Hmm... maybe I'm too dated to discuss such, er, youthful stuff, but I always had an impression that an ухажёр is somebody who isn't хахаль yet :) I mean, those two words describe different stages of the process :)

[medvedkinskaja.livejournal.com]

For me "мой молодой человек", "моя девушка" are the most normal sounding of what has been suggested. "Бойфренд" is a little more common than "гёрлфренд", probably because the latter is kind of difficult to pronounce in Russian.