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up vote 8 down vote favorite

i'm a female writing to my male friend who is a platonic friend.how should I, at the end of my letter, write:

"your friend britt"

At the end of his letter he put Dein Freund Joerg but I noticed Freundin is the same for friend (that is a girl) and girlfriend.

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wo ist jetzt der Unterschied zw. deine Freundin und deine Freundin? Abgesehen davon, dass ich Deine Freundin schreiben würde, und davon, dass Freund auch im Sinne von Boyfriend verwendet wird? – user unknown Oct 19 '11 at 12:19
I think "girlfriend" can also mean "female friend", especially among girls. – fzwo Nov 12 '11 at 18:52

2 Answers

up vote 17 down vote

I think if it's obvious that you're not his girlfriend from the context you can write

Deine Freundin Brittany

Especially when "Freundin" is used with a name it commonly denominates platonic friendships.

Tom: "Meine Freundin studiert Geschichte." (girlfriend)

Tom: "Meine Freundin Anja studiert Geschichte." (friend)

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16  
Just to add this: a German would never sign a letter to her lover with "Deine Freundin xxx". How we do that would be another nice question here. ;) – Takkat♦ Oct 19 '11 at 6:50
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+1 for splattne for the name thing - I've never noticed so far, but it's true. Also, +1 for Takkat - 100% agreed. – Mac Oct 19 '11 at 7:26
@splattne: Suggestion to add: If it's the girlfriend and her name should be mentioned, the usual form is "Anja, meine Freundin, studiert Geschichte." – Jan Oct 19 '11 at 8:27
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"Meine Freundin Anja" can still mean "my girlfriend Anja", and "meine Freundin" can still mean "my friend" (if he has only 1 female friend or if it's obvious who is referred to) so that's not a rock-solid translation. Even "eine meiner Freundinnen" can mean that the author is poly-amorous ;) Only "feste Freundin" or some term of endearment ("mein Schatz Anja") or adjective ("meine liebe Anja") is definite. In other words: It's complicated! – Hackworth Oct 19 '11 at 10:10
If I hear "Meine Freundin studiert Geschichte" I'd certainly think "GF". Just a friend would rather be s.th. like "Eine Freundin von mir studiert Geschichte". But: "Meine Freundin Anja" is not a bit uncertain. – Jürgen A. Erhard Nov 2 '11 at 21:51
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up vote 10 down vote

Note that this is a symmetric situation, "Freund" also denotes "boyfriend".

So, if your German-speaking platonic friend signs his letter like that, you can absolutely mimic that (if you are sure that he also know that you are in a platonic friendship :) ). Letter-endings among friends can be very idiosyncratic, anyway.

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