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.
a girl can also say мой друг in the same meaning (e.g. мой парень sounds awkward when a man and a woman both about 50 years of age are dating, because парень is a young guy)...
моя подруга would be used more often for 'my girlfriend', моя подружка is a diminutive form...
we don't seem to have a universal unisex term, партнёры might fit, but this sounds quite formal, that's why people rarely use it in casual conversation...
so the neutral terms are друг (парень if younger than 40, perhaps) and подруга.