How can I say that I have a female friend which is not my "girlfriend"?

Question

Should I say "girl friend"? or "friend girl"?

I've an American female friend (but not a woman yet but a girl) which I not my girfriend. So, I'd like to know a way to refer to her. I've asked about it to herself but I ain't satisfied with her answer.

Ok?


Ie - B r a z i l

Answer 1

My vote is for calling her your friend but then I don't see the gender issue.

So you feel it's important to make a distinction here. My guess is you are male and feel it is uncommon for opposite sex friendships. Therefore her gender and status as your friend makes for a marked category, outside the norm. Calling her just friend implies maleness, and that just ain't right, right? Hell, even native speakers of English will violate things like number agreement to get around the risk of implying wrong gender/sex.

When it is a situation where there might be some valid social or pragmatic linguistically induced ambiguity, in general, native speakers of English might resort to pronouns ("my friend, she....") or creating compound or phrasal constructions like "lady-friend" or "friend who is a girl" or "girl buddy". .The fact that there isn't a widely accepted single word for this suggests that it is not an important distinction for us though, and is only disambiguated on the fly when someone feels for personal reasons or circumstances that there is a chance of a socially or pragmatically costly confusion.

I'd suggest you give some thought to whether there is a genuine and strong social or pragmatic ambiguity created if you just say "friend" and if so, how strong it is. If you feel it's real and not just you, then do what an American would do and get phrasal on its *ss.

You do have the wonderful option of using a language where there is gender marking. Most Americans are familiar enough with romance languages that if you said "my amiga" we'll know exactly what you mean. In fact, if you do a search for "friend" and "synonym" you will find that "amigo" is given as a synonym. The references below are from English language thesaurus entries, so it seems you could get away with amiga if you want.

However, if you call her your amiga, you are entering into another possibly undesirable situation. Americans might think you don't know English very well - and some of us can be real jerks about that.

Ultimately it looks like you have to decide what's more important: speaking with brevity, maintaining (possibly largely irrelevant) sociolinguistic gender boundaries, or sounding like you haven't mastered the English language.

Answer 2

I think that saying she is your girlfriend will be fine for most situations. I hear other girls talk about "getting together with their girlfriends" and I never think of a lesbian orgy or anything. Still, your sensitivity to the issue is great because it shows that you are acknowledging that not everyone who is female would date or be interested in another male. (I happen to be a gay guy so I am into this sort of stuff...) Still, I think that for most of the time, saying she is your girlfriend will be fine to imply you two are friends. If anyone looks at you strange or makes you feel weird, you can then add quickly, "my female friend, name"....that usually works well. I do that when I am talking about a straight male friend. Good luck!

Answer 3

Just say you have a "friend." Then elaborate on this friend by starting the next sentence with "She".

Answer 4

simply say "female" friend, or just friend! Once you mentioned her name, she's obviously a girl.... if you're not confortable with girl friend.
Nada mas? Deseo mucho todo bien para ti....

Ciao

Answer 5

You could just refer to her a "friend" or a "lady-friend".

Answer 6

Just how you said it...female friend.

Answer 7

Female acquaintance or just acquaintance; if they can't figure she's a girl, then forget it!

Answer 8

female friend but not girlfriend

Answer 9

just say that she is my Friend

Answer 10

just say that she is your "friend that is a girl" that is my advice to .