Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post

P.S. Valda, one way to express "boyfriend" in Russian is мой парень (lit., "my guy"), and you can likewise say моя подружка for "girlfriend" in the romantic sense. When you want a unisex term to cover both genders, партнёры might indeed be the best option, but I'd ask native Russians for their recommendations on that.
Сожители is a general term for extramarital relationships when people have common household. Yet, it has somewhat negative connotations since time immemorial. Partners avoid the word like the plague, whereas other people use it extensively when they want to call a spade a spade.