# boyfriend, girlfriend



## panjabigator

I can think of a million words for lover, darling, etc in my languages, but not one for girlfriend or boyfriend....perhaps because the concept is foreign to my culture.  What are the words for it in your languages, and is dating ok for you guys?  Now a days everything is westernizing but I always assumed that there are still some traditional countries where people really dont date.


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## ronanpoirier

Portuguese:
Namorado -> Boyfriend
Namorada -> Girlfriend

French:
Amoureux -> Boyfriend
Amoureuse -> Girlfriend

Dating is absolutely ok to me. Here in Brazil some people go to parties and kisser over 10 people and they just don't care. However, I'm not like that (thanks God!).


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## panjabigator

I'd call those people whores!  Just kidding!  

They do not say novio y novia in Portuguese?


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## ronanpoirier

I think that's Spanish.

Noivo/Noiva are bridegroom and bride in Portuguese. 

Yeah. Some of them I'd call whores!


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## lay-z

well here in Chile we say "pololo" and "polola", boyfriend and girlfriend respectively.
and also we use the word "pololear" as a verb... and i am proud to say that _llevo 6 años pololeando jajaja..._
_saludos!_


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## Confused Linguist

*Bengali*

chhele-bondhu (boyfriend)

meye-bondhu (girlfriend)

These words can also mean a friend of the opposite sex.


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## Becker

In Sinhalese,

boyfriend = _pemvataa_
girlfriend_ = pemvati_

Also used in the context of "lover." Dating happens in school (frowned upon by the older generation) and at university (accepted by the older generation).

Confused linguist, does bondhu = friend in Bengali? In Sinhalese bandu = friend.


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## Confused Linguist

Yes, you're right, 'bondhu' means friend in Bengali.

'Prem' (pem) means love. I didn't know that Bengali had so much in common with Sinhalese.


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## Fernita

In Argentina:

boyfriend: novio
girlfriend: novia


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## Dalian

Mandarin

boyfriend: 男朋友 (nan peng you)
girlfriend: 女朋友 (nü peng you)


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## robbie_SWE

*Swedish: *
_pojkvän_ = boyfriend
_flickvän_ = girlfriend

*Romanian: *
_prietenul meu/iubitul meu/amicul meu_ = boyfriend
_prietena mea/iubita mea/ amica mea _= flickvän 

It's totally acceptable to date here in Sweden and in Romania (here in Sweden it's almost an obligation, but I don't mind  ), both for girls and boys. 

 robbie


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## Etcetera

In Russian, there's the word бойфренд which is a transliteration of the English 'boyfriend'. But it's rather informal, you shouldn't use it in written language. Mass media do use it, though.
In written language, возлюбленный/возлюбленная might be more appropriate, but they sound very old-fashioned.


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## Xerinola

Hi everybody!

Español: Novio(boyfriend) - Novia(girlfriend)
Català: Xicot (boyfriend) - Xicota(girlfriend)

Xerinola.


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## Whodunit

In German, it's really difficult. You could say

fester Freund (boyfriend)
and
feste Freundin (girlfriend)

... but if a girl says "Das ist mein Freund" (this is my friend), she's referring to her boyfriend. The same works vice versa.


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## MingRaymond

So, how to say 'this is my friend' in German if that guy is not her boyfriend, only her friend? 

Ming


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## Etcetera

By the way, the same thing occurs in Russian. If a girl says "Он мой друг" (He's my friend - masculine), it is normally understood as that they're in love with each other. But in fact, it may not be so


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## Dobean

in italian there are a lots of words that can be meaning boyfriend or girlfriend...
boyfriend: fidanzato, moroso, tipo/ragazzo ("il mio ragazzo/tipo" <- my boy)...
girlfriend: fidanzata, morosa, tipa/ragazza


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## Cereth

in japanese:

boyfriend:kareshii
girlfriend: Kanojyo
both words mean they really love each other 
this could be the words, but japanese is so difficult in this matter, they don´t have words for: lover or "mistress" for example.....

for japanese people  lover is the same than boyfriend/girlfriend....
i just had a looooong coversation about this matter with my japanese friend. I´m so suprised about the things he told me...eastern and western cultures are so different about this matter.


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## karuna

As for dating Latvia is the same as other western countries or even more relaxed. But Latvian also don't have separate words for boyfriend/girlfriend. The words _draugs/draudzene _simply mean male/female friend. But usually it does not create any misunderstanding because things can be inferred from the context or other words as lover, bride etc., can be used depending on the situation.


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## Whodunit

MingRaymond said:
			
		

> So, how to say 'this is my friend' in German if that guy is not her boyfriend, only her friend?
> 
> Ming


 
I know it is quite difficult to grasp, but we have to say "this is a friend" or "this is a friend of mine":

Das ist ein Freund.
Das ist eine Freundin.

Das ist ein Freund von mir.
Das ist eine Freundin von mir.

Or to show "deeper" friendship, you can add "good":

Das ist ein guter Freund.
Das ist eine gute Freundin.


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## Maja

In Serbian:

Boyfriend - dečko/momak (дечко/момак)
Girlfriend - devojka (девојка)


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## ukuca

In Turkish:
boyfriend = *erkek arkadaş*
girl friend = *kız arkadaş*
and we say *"sevgili"* (lover) for both.


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## panjabigator

Whodunit said:
			
		

> I know it is quite difficult to grasp, but we have to say "this is a friend" or "this is a friend of mine":
> 
> Das ist ein Freund.
> Das ist eine Freundin.
> 
> Das ist ein Freund von mir.
> Das ist eine Freundin von mir.
> 
> Or to show "deeper" friendship, you can add "good":
> 
> Das ist ein guter Freund.
> Das ist eine gute Freundin.



When you type German sentenses like that, it almost makes German look like a piece of cake to learn!  I'll assume I'm wrong and shut my mouth!


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## MingRaymond

Whodunit said:
			
		

> I know it is quite difficult to grasp, but we have to say "this is a friend" or "this is a friend of mine":
> 
> Das ist ein Freund.
> Das ist eine Freundin.
> 
> Das ist ein Freund von mir.
> Das ist eine Freundin von mir.
> 
> Or to show "deeper" friendship, you can add "good":
> 
> Das ist ein guter Freund.
> Das ist eine gute Freundin.


 
Thank you.


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## skatoulitsa

I've always been frustrated about this topic in greek too. A rather childish way you could refer to it would be:
το αγόρι μου = my boy
το κορίτσι μου = my girl

but you will probably never hear these after elementary school any more.

We also have a quite rude way of refering to boyfriend/girlfriends, but you would never use these to introduce someone, and it would also be rather rude to refer to your own boyfriend/girlfriend this way. These are:
γκόμενος --> boyfriend
γκόμενα --> girlfriend

Generally using the above is sort of diminishing, as if refering to the relationship as something insignificant/temporary/just physical.

In everyday life, the ones you would probably hear would be:
η κοπέλα μου = my girl
ο φίλος μου = my friend

Although the word "κοπέλα" doesn't only possess the "girlfriend" meaning, and means girl in general without the possessive adjective "μου", I do like it as a word to say "girlfriend".
Us girls however are unfortunately stuck with "friend". I hate it...


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## claramolin

Español:

Boyfriend: novio
Girlfriend: novia

Francés:

Boyfriend: le petit ami
Girlfriend: la petite amie


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## misdirection

In Filipino, we use (due to spanish influence):

boyfriend: nobyo
girlfriend: nobya

but the Tagalog (dialect where the Filipino language was based) translation is:

boyfriend/girlfriend: kasintahan

However, in daily conversations, the words "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" are used.


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## Tisia

*Persian:* 
- boyfriend: *دوست پسر* (dustpesar)
- girlfriend: *دوست دختر* (dustdokhtar)

*Finnish:*
- boyfriend: poikaystävä
- girlfriend: tyttöystävä

Tisia


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## Aleco

Norwegian:
- Kjæreste (both)
We have two words though: Venninne & venn. 
Venninne = a friend, which is a girl & venn = a friend which is a boy...


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## big-melon

in Chinese: 

男朋友： boyfriend
女朋友： girlfriend


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## kage

*Danish*:
very much like norwegian: _kæreste_ (both genders) 

kage


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## Thomas1

panjabigator said:
			
		

> I can think of a million words for lover, darling, etc in my languages, but not one for girlfriend or boyfriend....perhaps because the concept is foreign to my culture. What are the words for it in your languages, and is dating ok for you guys? Now a days everything is westernizing but I always assumed that there are still some traditional countries where people really dont date.


To me dating was always ok, is it not so in your opinion? This is a normal way to spend time with your boyfriend/girlfriend. Hanging out with your partner you can enjoy and get to know each other better. I didn;t know this was a typically western custom, I've always thought that people meet each other everywhere, in which countries don't people go out on dates with each other? And, if people (I mean boyfriend and girlfriend) in certain countries/societies don't date how do they spend time together or get to know one another?

boyfriend-chłopak (mostly used); facet
girlfriend-dziewczyna (mostly used); kobieta, laska


			
				ronanpoirier said:
			
		

> French:
> Amoureux -> Boyfriend
> Amoureuse -> Girlfriend


Hi,

Don't Feench use for boyfriend/girlfriend (petit) ami (petite) amie, respectively? IMHO, amoreux/amoreuse mean male/female lover, don't they? 

Tom


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## Insider

Well, in Ukrainian we don't have special word as in English. In this years it became popular to transliterate English "boyfriend" ---> *бойфренд *and the same with "girlfriend" ---> *герлфренд *but, as usual, we use just "a guy" ---> *хлопець* or "a girl" ---> *дівчина*, adding personal pronounce "my".  

Вона моя дівчина. (She's my girlfriend.)
Він мій хлопець. (He's my boyfriend.)


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## Insider

Etcetera said:
			
		

> In Russian, there's the word бойфренд which is a transliteration of the English 'boyfriend'. But it's rather informal, you shouldn't use it in written language. Mass media do use it, though.
> In written language, возлюбленный/возлюбленная might be more appropriate, but they sound very old-fashioned.


Etcetera,

I believe that nowadays it's almost impossible to hear someone in Russian people, using возлюбленный/возлюбленная. Well, it was absolutely normal to use in times of Tolstoy or Chehov, but not in Sorokin's or Pelevin's years.  Maybe, my opinion isn't correct. 

Insider


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## claudine2006

Dobean said:
			
		

> In Italian there are a lots of words that can mean boyfriend or girlfriend...
> boyfriend: fidanzato, moroso, tipo/ragazzo ("il mio ragazzo/tipo" <- my boy)...
> girlfriend: fidanzata, morosa, tipa/ragazza


 
In Italian it's just ragazzo/ragazza. 

You can also say fidanzato/fidanzata but it's for the person you're going to marry. 

"Moroso" it's a localism used just in the North of Italy. The same for "tipo/tipa": it doesn't sound very polite to me.

In Spanish it's novio/novia (if you're going to get married), better mi chico/ mi chica.


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## 地獄の森_jigoku_no_mori

@ Cereth and anyone who has interest:

Most of the time in Japanese, Kanojo - 彼女(literally meaning she) and Kare - 彼(literally meaning he) will suffice as girlfriend and boyfriend, respectively. You can tell wether they mean, he or boyfriend by the context, ie. "Kare ga imasu ka?" - "彼がいますか？", meaning, "Do you have a boyfriend?" While Kareshi - 彼氏, comes up as boyfriend in my dictionary, I've never heard it used before. On the other hand, if you'd rather not use kanji and just use katakana, bo-ifurendo - ボーイフレンド and ga-rufurendo - ガールフレンド can also be used.

I hope this is informative


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## Outsider

ronanpoirier said:
			
		

> Noivo/Noiva are bridegroom and bride in Portuguese.


Or fiancé.


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## optimistique

Whodunit said:
			
		

> In German, it's really difficult.
> 
> ... but if a girl says "Das ist mein Freund" (this is my friend), she's referring to her boyfriend. The same works vice versa.


 
It works about the same way in Dutch as in German (also with the 'a friend of'' -thing for 'just friends':_dat is een vriend van me= that's a friend of mine _), and it's really confusing:

boyfriend= *vriend*
girlfriend= *vriendin*

These are thus respectively the same words for 'friend' and '(female) friend'.
For boyfriend of teenagers you can also use the diminutive: *vriendje* (= little friend). But this is used as just a friend among little children (to raise the confusion some more).

There is confusion sometimes among Dutch people too (especially in communication between older people and younger), but the general thought behind it is that you have more than just one friend (or else you have to linguistically pretend you have), but only one boy-, girlfriend.


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## Cereth

地獄の森_jigoku_no_mori said:
			
		

> @ Cereth and anyone who has interest:
> 
> Most of the time in Japanese, Kanojo - 彼女(literally meaning she) and Kare - 彼(literally meaning he) will suffice as girlfriend and boyfriend, respectively. You can tell wether they mean, he or boyfriend by the context, ie. "Kare ga imasu ka?" - "彼がいますか？", meaning, "Do you have a boyfriend?" While Kareshi - 彼氏, comes up as boyfriend in my dictionary, I've never heard it used before. On the other hand, if you'd rather not use kanji and just use katakana, bo-ifurendo - ボーイフレンド and ga-rufurendo - ガールフレンド can also be used.
> 
> I hope this is informative


 
Quite informative "forest of hell" thank you! and now the problem comes when you try to make the difference between lover and kare/kanojyo ...my japanese friends think is the same thing!!
As a latin girl i consider those words way different!


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## 地獄の森_jigoku_no_mori

Well, from what I've learned the Japanese are quite shy about their emotions, so if there was a real word for "lover" it would be so rarely used.


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## Bienvenidos

This is an interesting question.....in Persian, the word *rafíq* is used for both *friend* *AND boyfriend/girlfriend*....It's because people don't really "date" in Afghanistan (due to religious and cultural beliefs).

It's a little confusing sometimes to associate who's doing what when using this Persian word. 


*Bien*


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## tori

เเฟน in Thai, pronounced 'fan' means both boyfriend and girlfriend


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## aurette

robbie_SWE said:


> *Swedish: *
> _pojkvän_ = boyfriend
> _flickvän_ = girlfriend
> 
> *Romanian: *
> _prietenul meu/iubitul meu/amicul meu_ = boyfriend
> _prietena mea/iubita mea/ amica mea _= flickvän
> 
> It's totally acceptable to date here in Sweden and in Romania (here in Sweden it's almost an obligation, but I don't mind  ), both for girls and boys.
> 
> robbie


 
-i would simply add that in Romania there is a confusion between *friend* and *boyfriend* because we use the same word: *prieten/a*. 
*-iubit/a *clearly means lover
-*amic/a* is definitely friend, nothing more

wouldn't you agree, robbie?


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## happyonend

*Chinese:*
男朋友 （nan pon you)= boyfriend
女朋友  (nyu pon you)= girlfriend
恋人 （lyan ren)=either of above


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## richardus

In *korean*:

여자 친구 -->Girlfriend
남자 친구 --> Boyfriend
애인 --> boyfriend/girlfried

약혼녀 --> Fiancée
약혼자 --> Fiancé

It's quite interesting that in korean and chinese, those words are quite similar, for example, 

애인 is written as 愛人 --> Loved person
여자 친구 女子 友 -->Female friend
남자 친구 男子 友 -->Male friend


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## MonsieurAquilone

Often in France you will hear:

Boyfriend : Copain
Girlfriend  : Copine


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## *Gaia*

In Japanese you can also say 恋人 "koibito" that it's ok both for men and women; then, 婚約者 "konyakusha" that indicates the official fiancee, the one you're going to marry


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## MarX

panjabigator said:


> I can think of a million words for lover, darling, etc in my languages, but not one for girlfriend or boyfriend....perhaps because the concept is foreign to my culture.  What are the words for it in your languages, and is dating ok for you guys?  Now a days everything is westernizing but I always assumed that there are still some traditional countries where people really dont date.


Hi!

In Indonesian we say *pacar* (Indonesian doesn't have grammatical genders).

One may also say *cèwèk* (girl) or *cowok* (guy). In both words, the final *-k* represents a glottal stop.

Salam,


MarX


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## blue_jewel

In Tagalog: Boyfriend: Nobyo 
                Girlfriend: Nobya


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## Encolpius

In *Hungarian *we have no specific word like English have. 

*boyfriend *= barátja [friend], szeretője [lover], fiúja [boy]
*girlfriend *= barátnője [female friend], szeretője, csaja [slang: chick]


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## apmoy70

skatoulitsa said:


> I've always been frustrated about this topic in greek too. A rather childish way you could refer to it would be:
> το αγόρι μου = my boy
> το κορίτσι μου = my girl
> 
> but you will probably never hear these after elementary school any more.
> 
> We also have a quite rude way of refering to boyfriend/girlfriends, but you would never use these to introduce someone, and it would also be rather rude to refer to your own boyfriend/girlfriend this way. These are:
> *γκόμενος --> boyfriend
> γκόμενα --> girlfriend*
> 
> Generally using the above is sort of diminishing, as if refering to the relationship as something insignificant/temporary/just physical.
> 
> In everyday life, the ones you would probably hear would be:
> η κοπέλα μου = my girl
> ο φίλος μου = my friend
> 
> Although the word "κοπέλα" doesn't only possess the "girlfriend" meaning, and means girl in general without the possessive adjective "μου", I do like it as a word to say "girlfriend".
> Us girls however are unfortunately stuck with "friend". I hate it...


Just wanted to add that «γκόμενος» ('gomenos, _m._), «γκόμενα» ('gomena, _f._) for "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" is very colloquial speech (almost slang). The word derives from the same Genoese (Zeneize) word (gomena, _f._) which described the cable, one end of which is attached to the ship's anchor. According to _"The Portal for the Greek Language"_, "gomena" comes from the Arabic _"guml"_


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## L'irlandais

Hello,
In Irish Gaelic (Gaeilge) a similar nuance exists as in many of the other languages above.
Boyfriend = *buachaill* (literally just "boy")
girlfriend = *cailìn* (literally just "girl")

The precise terms of the relationship are often kept vague. 

ps. If one wanted to simply say boy without any romantic nuance then garsún would do the trick.
     A female might refer to a girlfriend of her's as cara mná (literally "women friend")

    To write that as Gaeilge you may find these vowels (á, ó, *ú* + é,* í*) of help.


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## Hutschi

Whodunit said:


> I know it is quite difficult to grasp, but we have to say "this is a friend" or "this is a friend of mine":
> 
> Das ist ein Freund.
> Das ist eine Freundin.
> 
> Das ist ein Freund von mir.
> Das ist eine Freundin von mir.
> 
> Or to show "deeper" friendship, you can add "good":
> 
> Das ist ein guter Freund.
> Das ist eine gute Freundin.


Exactly. If the gender is different, there is a big difference betwein "ein" and "mein". "Mein/meine" indicates girlfriend or boyfriend, if there is no extra context blocking this (example: sie ist _nur_ meine Freundin". "Nur" blocks that she is my girlfriend and makes a friend out of her.)
And there is an additional way to express it, you can say "wir sind Freunde", or "wir sind befreundet".

In case you add "bester", it is your best friend.

Das ist mein bester Freund.
Das ist meine beste Freundin.

There is no easy way when the gender is different. It strongly depends on context.

In school, you can say "Das ist mein Schulfreund." or "Das ist meine Schulfreundin".


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## xicot

Cereth said:


> Quite informative "forest of hell" thank you! and now the problem comes when you try to make the difference between lover and kare/kanojyo ...my japanese friends think is the same thing!!
> As a latin girl i consider those words way different!



I know this is an old thread but it came up quite high on the search...
I would like to say it would be great if people didn't comment on a language that they are not native of and spread misinformation due to lack of knowledge....  :|

Firstly there are a few ways to say girlfriend/boyfriend, or couple. As stated, 彼氏、彼女　is boyfriend, girlfriend respectively. 彼 (kare) is usually just to say or refer to 'he'.
恋人 (koibito) can also be used.
I have no idea how you come to the idea that we do not have the word for 'lover' because we can use 愛人　(aijin) for this... the Spanish equivalent being 'amante'...  Another more disrespectful way to say is simply refer the girl in question as simply 女　(onna) for example ”あれは武の女だ”　"thats Takeshi's woman"
This is really only in Japanese however, as the same kanji （愛人） in Chinese or Korean from what i remember means 'someone they love' not as 'mistress' as we use in Japan.

Thank you and I hope that clears up some misunderstanding...


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## mataripis

In Tagalog, words do not have gender. The tagalog word for Boy/girlfriend is 1.) kasintahan 2.) kalaguyo  3.)  Kai-bigan(pronounced differently from kaibigan) 4.) the influence of spanish in tagalog made this word familiar in urban and non tagalog areas. nobyo/nobya.


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## Angelo di fuoco

robbie_SWE said:


> *Swedish: *
> _pojkvän_ = boyfriend
> _flickvän_ = girlfriend



That's interesting. "Poika" means "son" in Finnish.


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## Angelo di fuoco

Xerinola said:


> Hi everybody!
> 
> Español: Novio(boyfriend) - Novia(girlfriend)
> Català: Xicot (boyfriend) - Xicota(girlfriend)
> 
> Xerinola.



And you can use the Spanish terms in informal/colloquial Catalan, too...



MingRaymond said:


> So, how to say 'this is my friend' in German if that guy is not her boyfriend, only her friend?
> 
> Ming





Whodunit said:


> I know it is quite difficult to grasp, but we  have to say "this is a friend" or "this is a friend of mine":
> 
> Das ist ein Freund.
> Das ist eine Freundin.
> 
> Das ist ein Freund von mir.
> Das ist eine Freundin von mir.
> 
> Or to show "deeper" friendship, you can add "good":
> 
> Das ist ein guter Freund.
> Das ist eine gute Freundin.



You can say "wir sind befreundet": "we are on friendship terms" or something like that. 



Thomas1 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Don't Feench use for boyfriend/girlfriend (petit) ami (petite) amie,  respectively? IMHO, amoreux/amoreuse mean male/female lover, don't they?
> 
> Tom



Nope, it doesn't. "Amoureux" means "in love with" (and not always loved in return), not "lover".
"Lover", at least in classical usage, was/is amant & maîtresse.


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## Angelo di fuoco

richardus said:


> It's quite interesting that in korean and chinese, those words are quite similar, for example,
> 
> 애인 is written as 愛人 --> Loved person



"愛人 --> literally means "Loved person" in Chinese, but usually it stands for "husband" or, more rarely, "wife".


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## morior_invictus

Slovak:

*a boyfriend *(in the sense "a male companion or friend with whom one has a romantic relationship") = priateľ, frajer; čávo (  very slangy)
*a girlfriend* (in the sense "a female companion or friend with whom one has a romantic relationship") = priateľka, frajerka; čajočka / čajka (  very slangy)

When speaking of our friends, we use "kamarát" when we refer to our male friend and "kamarátka" when referring to our female friend (with whom we have no romantic relationship - or at least we don't want our listener/reader to know that ). Occasionally, women may use "priateľka" when they refer to her female friend (with whom they have no romantic relationship).


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## AutumnOwl

robbie_SWE said:


> *Swedish: *
> _pojkvän_ = boyfriend
> _flickvän_ = girlfriend


In everyday speech I would guess that *min kille* (my guy) and *min tjej* (my gal) is more used. _Kille _can be used for any male, and _tjej _for any female, from very young children up to middle aged, and even older persons. 

_Vän_ means friend, but more often _kompis_ is used, _en killkompis/tjejkompis_ is a platonic friend, while _min kille/min tjej_ means someone you are dating/romantically involved with.


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## Medune

ronanpoirier said:


> Portuguese:
> Namorado -> Boyfriend
> Namorada -> Girlfriend
> 
> French:
> Amoureux -> Boyfriend
> Amoureuse -> Girlfriend
> 
> Dating is absolutely ok to me. Here in Brazil some people go to parties and kisser over 10 people and they just don't care. However, I'm not like that (thanks God!).


In old Portuguese _amigo_ and _amiga_  (masculine and feminine for friend) meant boyfriend and girlfriend, respectively. It is interesting to observe the words boy/girlfriend intertwined in different levels and by different approaches with _friend _in several indo-european languages. I guess their confounding nature attests to the relative novelty of this cultural concept.


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## Abdullah Singapura

Dalian said:


> Mandarin
> 
> boyfriend: 男朋友 (nan peng you)
> girlfriend: 女朋友 (nü peng you)



Or so called 马子/馬子 mǎ zi
Literally meaning a horse rider
Only for colloquial use among men's talk


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## Abdullah Singapura

richardus said:


> 애인 is written as 愛人 --> Loved person
> 여자 친구 女子 友 -->Female friend
> 남자 친구 男子 友 -->Male friend



Correction of the Hanja
여자 친구 女子親舊
남자 친구 男子親舊


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## DearPrudence

To sum up what we say in *French*.
It is quite confusing and often leads to questions (how do you make the distinction between a boyfriend and a friend? A bit like in German)

*boyfriend *: *copain *_(literally: friend)_, (sounds more dated) *petit copain, petit ami* _(literally: small/little/short friend)_
Then, you can also use other words like: *amoureux *_(lover)_, *chéri *_(darling)_, (colloquial, slang, for young people) *mec*, (a bit dated) *jules* (proper name)

*girlfriend *: *copine *_(literally: friend)_, (sounds more dated) *petite copine, petite amie* (literally: small/little/short friend)
Then, you can also use other words like: *amoureuse *_(lover)_, *chérie *_(darling)_, (colloquial, slang, for young people) *meuf*, (dated) *nana*

*fiancé, fiancée* : well, *fiancé, fiancée*, just when you are engaged and will get married

And in Canada:
*boyfriend*: *chum*
*girlfriend*: *blonde *(even if she's not blonde)

ami / copain / petit ami


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## Sardokan1.0

ronanpoirier said:


> Portuguese:
> Namorado -> Boyfriend
> Namorada -> Girlfriend
> 
> French:
> Amoureux -> Boyfriend
> Amoureuse -> Girlfriend
> 
> Dating is absolutely ok to me. Here in Brazil some people go to parties and kisser over 10 people and they just don't care. However, I'm not like that (thanks God!).





Medune said:


> In old Portuguese _amigo_ and _amiga_  (masculine and feminine for friend) meant boyfriend and girlfriend, respectively. It is interesting to observe the words boy/girlfriend intertwined in different levels and by different approaches with _friend _in several indo-european languages. I guess their confounding nature attests to the relative novelty of this cultural concept.



In Sardinian "_amigu _and _amiga_" are used more or less in the same way of old Portuguese

*Amigu, Amiga ->* Unofficial boyfriend, girlfriend / clandestine lover

*Amoradu ->* Boyfriend
*Amorada ->* Girlfriend

*Fidanzadu ->* Official Boyfriend, engaged
*Fidanzada ->* Official Girlfriend, engaged

moreover, from _Amigu _and _Amiga _has been coined the verb _Amigare_, which can be translated as :

- to have a clandestine relationship

example :
Mary betrayed her husband to start a relationship with Peter *->* Maria hat traìtu a maridu sou pro si amigare cun Pedru
Mary has a relationship with Peter *->* Maria s'est amigada cun Pedru
Mary and Peter have a relationship *->* Maria e Pedru si sun amigados


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## Penyafort

*Catalan*

(male friend) *amic *[ə'mik]
(female friend) *amiga *[ə'miɣə]
(male lover) *xicot *[ʃi'kɔt]
(female lover) *xicota *[ʃi'kɔtə]
(fiancé, betrothed) *promès *[pɾu'mɛs]
(fiancée, betrothed) *promesa *[pɾu'mɛzə]
(fiancé about to get married, groom) *nuvi *['nuβi] (or *novii*)
(fiancée about to get married, bride) *núvia *['nuβiə] (or *nòvia*) ['nɔβiə]

Recently some people are using _novii _(or _nòvio _['nɔβiu]) and _nòvia _instead of _xicot _and _xicota_, probably due to influence from Spanish.​


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## ThomasK

Whodunit said:


> In German, it's really difficult. You could say
> 
> fester Freund (boyfriend)
> and
> feste Freundin (girlfriend)
> 
> ... but if a girl says "Das ist mein Freund" (this is my friend), she's referring to her boyfriend. The same works vice versa.


We have got past the stage that there is a difference between "fixed (???) friend" and "friend" around here... Whenever we say "my friend", it implies there is some "stability" involved. In the other case, you will just say "een vriend"...


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## 123xyz

Etcetera said:


> In Russian, there's the word бойфренд which is a transliteration of the English 'boyfriend'. But it's rather informal, you shouldn't use it in written language. Mass media do use it, though.
> In written language, возлюбленный/возлюбленная might be more appropriate, but they sound very old-fashioned.



My Russian friend (a teenager) uses "парень" (guy) for "boyfriend" and "девушка" (girl) for "girlfriend". She doesn't like the word "бойфренд".

Macedonian:

*дечко* - boyfriend, lit. "guy" (it cannot mean "male friend"); it is interesting to note that when it means "boyfriend", its plural is "дечковци", whereas it's "дечки" when it just means "guy" (this second plural form is usually used as a form of address and doesn't sound very nice beyond vocative contexts, at least to my ears)
*девојка* - girlfriend, lit. "girl", as in "young female adult*" (it cannot mean "female friend")

*female kid = девојче


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## kaitlam14

In VietNam :

BoyFriend : Ban Trai
GirlFriend : Ban Gai


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