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In English when a man is in a relationship with another man, he can say he's his boyfriend. In German, saying "Freund" when both are of the same sex is usually understood to mean the equivalent of "friend", not implying a relationship. Same goes for women.

Is there a german word for this?

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Note that you can say Kumpel (fellow, buddy) to avoid ambiguity when referring to a friend. – Em1 Aug 15 '12 at 12:01
But you usually wouldn't call a girl like that. – Geziefer Aug 15 '12 at 12:18
@Geziefer Correct, then you can take Kumpeline :D – Em1 Aug 15 '12 at 12:44
You imply not to have a relationship if you call somebody your friend? – user unknown Aug 20 '12 at 2:04

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

The only correct answer is: no. Both friend and boyfriend are "Freund" in German, and this often causes confusion.

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While "Freund" can be attributed to make things clearer, as in er ist mein bester Freund (he's my best friend) or sie ist meine feste Freundin (she's my girlfriend). Also, the use of the article/personal pronoun can add a meaning: er ist ein Freund (he's a friend) versus er ist mein Freund (he's my boyfriend). – Thorsten Dittmar Oct 18 '12 at 13:55
up vote 15 down vote

A boyfriend could be called »fester Freund«, a girlfriend »feste Freundin«.

There is also the gender-neutral¹ »Partner« or, to clarify that it's not a business partner, »Lebenspartner«. Another gender-neutral¹ term is »Lebensgefährte«.

¹: as elena pointed out, there are of course feminine forms for those, describing that it is a female person: »Partnerin«, »Lebenspartnerin«, »Lebensgefährtin«.

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"Gender-neutral" is the wrong word: There are the clearly female forms "Partnerin" and "Lebensgefährtin". "Schatz" would be gender-neutral, because it remains the same whether your "Schatz" is male or female. – elena Aug 15 '12 at 11:45
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@elena: As far as I know »Partner« and »Gefährte« are 'generisch maskulin'. So if someone says »Da kommt mein Partner« it is not 100% clear whether it's a male or a female person. You can only be sure if it is a female person and the speaker uses the female form. But the speaker doesn't have to use it. If the »Partner« is a female person it would be still correct to say »Da kommt mein Partner«. But I see that "gender-neutral" is not the right term for it, because a female form can be used. – unor Aug 15 '12 at 12:15
@unor... how did you manage to write the alinea 1 ? special combination of character ? – Stephane Rolland Aug 15 '12 at 19:43
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@StephaneRolland: It depends on your operating system and/or keyboard layout. On Gnome (GNU/Linux) I can type it with Alt Gr + 1. You can find a list of some subscript/superscript characters on Wikipedia. Feel free to ask a question on Superuser, where it can be discussed in more detail. – unor Aug 15 '12 at 21:40
@unor, if the partner is a female person and is just approaching, it would NOT be correct to say "Da kommt mein Partner." To a native speaker of German "Partner" in this context is male. If I see a woman approaching and the person next to me says "Da kommt mein Partner", I would not clock that it's the woman they're talking about. – teylyn Aug 17 '12 at 10:58
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up vote 16 down vote

Basically there is no distinction, which sometimes makes it difficult to understand.

So when I say Das ist meine Freundin it's not obvious whether she is my girlfriend or just a friend.

Usually people then say something like Das ist eine Freundin (von mir) for the 2nd case.

Concerning the same sex - a colleague of mine is homosexual and when I speak of his Freund it's not obvious for others that I mean his boyfriend.

So, German pretty much lacks a word here...

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It is easy and unambigous though if you refer to your best friend: "bester Freund"/"beste Freunding". This clearly does not refer to your boy-/girlfriend. – mthomas Aug 24 '12 at 16:05

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