26 Friend or boyfriend?

Friend or boyfriend?

As you already know, German language is super picky about people’s gender, e.g. you can hardly talk about someone without revealing if it is a male or female: ein Student, eine Studentin etc.

At the same time, quite surprisingly, German does not really make a strict distinction between a friend (one of many friends or acquaintances someone might have) and a boyfriend/girlfriend. All of these relationships are expressed by the same word Freund for a male friend/boyfriend and Freundin for female friend/girlfriend. The meaning usually depends on the context, so you have to pay close attention.

If someone says Susanne ist meine Freundin or Erik ist mein Freund it might mean that they are in a romantic relationship. Or not. 😉

If people want to be really clear, they will say something like:

“Erik ist mein fester Freund” or “Sabine ist meine feste Freundin”

  (Erik is my permanent friend)         (Sabine is my permanent girl-friend)