Thread: друг can be applied for female?

I was told that a male can say "подруга" and it's not used for a relationship just for friendship. I have been using that the last few years with no issues.

Scott

Originally Posted by Valda

I know there's друг and there's подруга, but подруга is more for a relationship. Is there a better equivalent for друг or is друг also applied for females?

Originally Posted by fortheether

I was told that a male can say "подруга" and it's not used for a relationship just for friendship. I have been using that the last few years with no issues.

Scott

It depends on the context. In its direct meaning "подруга" is just female friend. But it can be used as an euphemism for a "relationship".

Originally Posted by fortheether

I was told that a male can say "подруга" and it's not used for a relationship just for friendship. I have been using that the last few years with no issues.

Scott

I've heard a guy saying "подруга" referring to all girls in his circle, he had a lot of female colleagues (he was not in relationship with any of them), he just couldn't find another word. But still it sounded a bit strange (may be it was OK in his circle of liberal city boys and city girls), because in most cases when a guy says "подруга", in most contexts that would be his girlfriend. So an innocent word would be "моя знакомая" - can't imply any relationship. It seems to me this area of language in Russian is rather complicated, sometimes even native speakers are somewhat in doubt as to what word to use.