# Мальчик, юноша, парень



## gentilhom

Could you describe the difference between these words ?


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## viesis

Here are approximate English equivalents:
мальчик - boy
юноша - teenager
парень - guy


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## willem81

Additionally, юноша can be translated as 'youngster', парень - as 'lad'. However, viesis's approximation is good.


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## gentilhom

I have heard that  парень also means boyfriend.


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## viesis

gentilhom said:


> I have heard that  парень also means boyfriend.


Yes, it does.


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## gentilhom

ей па̀рни is "hey guys!"? In my book, they use ребята...


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## viesis

gentilhom said:


> ей па̀рни is "hey guys!"? In my book, they use ребята...


Not "ей парни", but "эй, парни". "ребята" is a bit old-fashioned.


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## gentilhom

Yes, it's a book from the Soviet era.


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## willem81

_Эй, ребята_ is the most universal way to address both a childish and a more grown-up audience. _
Эй, парни_ can be addressed only to a relatively more grown-up group. However, those are synonymous.
You can encounter as well other expressions like _эй, хлопцы_ or _эй, пацаны_, which are more slangy.


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## marco_2

And how do you address a group of boys and girls - эй, ребята? (I guess парни, хлопцы or пацаны can't be used here)


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## learnerr

willem81 said:


> _Эй, парни_ can be addressed only to a relatively more grown-up group. However, those are synonymous.


In my view, this is also to mean that the addressee are, how to say, 'rude boys'. For example, in Muravyov's translation of "The Lord of the Rings", orcs refer to groups of other orcs as "парни".


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## willem81

marco_2 said:


> And how do you address a group of boys and girls - эй, ребята? (I guess парни, хлопцы or пацаны can't be used here)



In such a situation they mostly say 'Эй, ребята и девчата'.


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## ahvalj

I cannot recall the word «девчата» being used outside the literature and movies of the middle Soviet time. Don't think I ever heard it in person. «Хлопцы» sounds totally Ukrainian for me, so even more restricted. «Пацаны» seems to be originally Jewish from the south and west, but it was slowly penetrating the speech of other parts of the country, Anyway, I never heard this word in Leningrad in my school times.


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## willem81

ahvalj said:


> I cannot recall the word «девчата» being used outside the literature and movies of the middle Soviet time. Don't think I ever heard it in person. «Хлопцы» sounds totally Ukrainian for me, so even more restricted. «Пацаны» seems to be originally Jewish from the south and west, but it was slowly penetrating the speech of other parts of the country, Anyway, I never heard this word in Leningrad in my school times.



I suspect that 'ребята' can be addressed to a mixed group but if one wishes to be more explicit _'ребята и девчата_' is sometimes used. _Хлопцы_ is indeed an adopted Ukrainian word but it still can be used in Russian. _Пацаны_ is a nearly criminal slang word, however I heard it a lot in my school years (I was growing up in Urals in Sverdlovskaya oblast).


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## ahvalj

Before Maroseika begins to deny the Jewish origin of «пацан»: yes, I know this is only one of two widespread ideas (the other one derives it from Ukrainian), but in any case for the Russian language it is a rather new word that was long associated with the criminal sphere. And yet I see absolutely no ways to etymologize its root on the Slavic ground. The Ukrainian word for rat «пацюк» for fonetical reasons (ц at the end of the root after а) cannot be ancient, and the Ukrainian interjection «паць» hardly could produce a suffixal derivate (at least I cannot recall other examples). So, ultimately its root must be a borrowing.


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## viesis

Let me share my experience. I grew up in Belarus. 
To me "девчата" is something from old ladies' vocabulary. "пацаны" is widely used, but it's slangy. "Хлопцы" is also frequently used (influence of the Belarusian language). "Ребята" is rare, but sometimes used to address a mixed group of people.


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## ahvalj

Well, for me «ребята» is the most natural choice. «Парни» is clearly Hollywood induced, though gaining popularity. The rest is too regional, as I had written.


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## ahvalj

Speaking of addressing people, I have another perspective. In the end of the eighties with the fall of the Soviet rule, old words started to penetrate the everyday life, among them «господа» or «дамы и господа». When applied to contemporary people, they sounded rather ironic, and thus sufficiently informal, so in the first half of the nineties it was quite possible to address the group of youngsters «господа» (e. g. this is the way many of us did so during our student time). Don't know if it is valid today.


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## Caballero_Andante

Indeed, here in Saint Pete девчата seems obsolete. Ребята is quite good for addressing a mixed group. In case the group consists only of girls, I'd use девочки (this is the way I used to address a group of my students, all girls) or девчонки, a more informal option.
Хлопцы is regionalism still used here in St. Pete, пацаны is becoming more and more common. Now it may denote a male person of even any age group and is "travelling" from slang vocabulary to just colloquial. I often use such phrases as Пацаны, пошли бухать or Я пошел с пацанами в бар, and here пацан is closer in its meaning to the English "pal" or "mate".


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## palomnik

I agree about девчата. It sound a little like saying "gals" in English - nobody under 70 would use it any more. Nowadays, the term is associated with a light comedy film from the fifties that modern Russians find either cute in a corny way or ridiculous.


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## willem81

The word _девчата_ may sound obsolete, but _ребята и девчата_ is a coined expression that can be used when addressing a mixed group and wishing to be particularly precise.


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## rusita preciosa

Mod note
All: please remember that the topic of the post is *Мальчик, юноша, парень*. Please feel free to open a new post if you want to discuss other words.


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## Angelo di fuoco

willem81 said:


> In such a situation they mostly say 'Эй, ребята и девчата'.



In my family, ребята isn't gender-specific, contrary to парни or девчата, since ребёнок just means "child", not "boy".


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## willem81

Angelo di fuoco said:


> In my family, ребята isn't gender-specific, contrary to парни or девчата, since ребёнок just means "child", not "boy".



I suspect that the plural of ребёнок is "дети", and not "ребята". So it is not as simple as it may seem.


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## Angelo di fuoco

If you take the way the words are actually used, yes, I agree, but

ребята derives from ребёнок 
дети derives from дитя


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## willem81

I think here lies the difference: ребёнок is masculine, дитя is neuter (precisely like 'das Kind' in German).


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## Angelo di fuoco

ребёнок is masculine, but only in gender, since in sex it can be both.


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## willem81

Angelo di fuoco said:


> ребёнок is masculine, but only in gender, since in sex it can be both.



I am aware of that, of course. My assumption is that the fact that one cannot address a company of girls with 'ребята' comes from the masculine gender of 'ребёнок'. Whereas with 'дети' - easily I think.


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## Slavianophil

Я бы не стал переводить "парень" как "guy". "Парень" по-русски это, всё-таки, молодой человек. Изначально означало молодого неженатого мужчину. Сейчас иногда применяется и к женатым, но всё же к молодым. "Guy", насколько я понимаю, может применяться к мужчине любого возраста и семейного положения.

"Юноша" тоже означает молодого человека, как правило очень молодого, мне кажется, не старше 22-23 лет. Это слово более книжное, возвышенное, чем "парень".

А "мальчик" обычно означает ребёнка или подростка мужского пола, лет до 18. Парни постарше часто обижаются, когда их называют мальчиками.

Для полного счастья хорошо бы освоить ещё разные суффиксальные образования - парнишка, паренёк, мальчишка и пр., на которые так богат русский язык. Но это уже высший пилотаж. (А вот к "юноше" никакой суффикс не прилепишь).


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## Great Dane

gentilhom said:


> I have heard that  парень also means boyfriend.



dependent from context:
парень = fellow, young man, guy (not lover). (for instance: Парень пришёл устраиваться на работу. Такие здоровые парни могли бы уступить место девушке в маршрутке)

мой парень = boyfriend (lover) (Девушка может сказать: "Мой парень пригласил меня в кино".)
ёё парень = boyfriend (lover) (for instance: Её парень подарил ей на день рождения милое колечко)

мой мальчик, её мальчик = boyfriend for teanagers
моя девочка, её девочка = girlfriend for teanagers  (but son or doughter for adults :-D ). (Мы с моей девочкой очень здорово провели это лето (однозначно с любовницей )) )

наш парень = just friendly and good fellow or an adult man, not alien or not a strange man. (Это наш парень (свой человек) = к нему можно относиться как к другу, доверять ему).
наши парни = very good and superior men from our culture ))). Наши парни выиграли чемпионат мира по хоккею в 2012 году.


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