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- Topic: Russian >
- "этот парень"
33 Comments
Why is "this boyfriend" accepted? In English, "guy" and "boyfriend" are not synonyms. Are they in Russian? Or is it a friend who happens to be a boy as opposed to a love interest?
So confused...
There is simply no context in which this could make sense. When would you say "this boyfriend"? I mean: even if you are polyamorous. Парень just means as much as "boy/guy". But in combination with a possessive pronoun it gets the meaning "boyfriend".
You and your best friend are sitting on your bed, giggling and chatting, as girls do. You've known each other for quite some time now, most of your lives, really. Your diary lies in front of you, and you are casually flipping its pages, looking for fun memories to share with her. You read about Владимир, who you used to date for a brief moment. His picture (he gave it to you the first time you had a real date) is wedged between the pages. You sigh and say to your friend: "This boyfriend, he was so much fun, none of the others made me feel the way I did back then.." There's your context :-)
1) Now, that you wrote this, I feel so very unfemale. For I am not really into such girly talk.
2) Please do not mess around with my feelings for Вова. We all know he is happy with this skinny girl, that he is going to marry, and I moved on - knowing that there is only the language left to love.
1 Well, maybe, you are not a girl, but a woman, when you dislike this kind of girly behaviour ;-) So don't feel less feminine. 2. I'm sorry. I will never mention him again. PS She lacks character as well as body, I don't know what he sees in her either. It's hard to actually see her, she's that skinny.
In Italian too, "ragazzo/ragazza" means "boy/girl", but " il mio../la mia ragazza" becomes "my boyfriend/girlfriend"
I'm sure that because of the actual homophobic environment in Russia, it'd be very brave and meaningful calling your best friend "парень" if you're already a guy....
In Japanese as wrll, the word for boyfriend and guy is the same. Different languages, different meanings
Maybe it is used in non romantic context. Like "our guy in Pentagon sends us only useless intel. We should recall him back to Motherland and fire him from KGB"
It depends on context. Women involved in a romantic relationship with a guy will often refer to their boyfriend as "my guy." The same applies to девушка.
I think the voice synthesis is wrong. I asked a native speaker and they said PAH-rehn. The pronunciation was a little faster than other words but all the consonants were still audible
Glad I'm not alone. I listened to it about 10 times and couldn't figure out what it was trying to say. :-(
1617
Compared to recordings of actual people pronouncing it, the audio is wrong. There is a definite р pronounced, although it sounds something like a cross between an English r & d to me, but that may be because of the following long i sound and, I believe, a single flap of the tongue on the р.
For examples, see: https://forvo.com/word/%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C/#ru
I considered парень but gave up because I couldn't hear the р. It doesn't sound like any of the Forvo pronunciations. I appreciate having the robot lady, and usually she's OK, but occasionally she sounds way off.
- 630
this microphone hates my american accent. keeps marking it wrong and never gives me a chance to try it again. it doesn't really help with my pronunciation if i don't get a second chance to try.
Ok so because of the "e", "р" becomes soft but is a soft "р" still trilled/rolled? To me "р" sounds more like an English "r" in this word.
Этот is masculine. Это is neuter, эта feminine and эти plural (for all genders). This guide gives a very clear explanation of how Это is used:
- 620
Not clear on why the word is Этот, and not Это.
Is it like choosing between when to use Это (for "This is...."), and Этa (for "this ___") with feminine nouns?
Это is neuter, этот masculine, and эта feminine. Этот парень, эта рука, это место (for example). The last, of course, could mean either "this place" or "it is a place" - context will determine.
Этот, эта, это all mean this, but different gender. Этот парень means this lad (actually a young man or an older boy). Эта девушка = this girl. Это яблоко = this apple, but also all Это (neutral only)+noun expressions have an implied verb to be, so can be translated as This is + a noun.
One time its guy another time its boyfriend.... really make sense. Same thing for cacoa and hot chocolat. It doesnt make any sense on when wich is applied without context. These are mistakes that arent even mistakes. Please change this? Or at least make a context arround it so it starts to make sense.
