Popular Chinese Words: Friend (Pengyou)

In China, if a stranger address you " waiguo pengyou " (外国朋友), don’t make a fuss at it. Those expats who have stayed in China for several years my get that “EVERYONE IN CHINA COULD BE ADDRESSED A FRIEND.” The man who stands beside you waiting for subway train can be called a “pengyou” despite that he is a stranger to you!



Did you ever hear such story? “My brothers have a pengyou, whose sister’s pengyou can get a cheaper air ticket from his uncle’s pengyou.” It seems too odd and even unreliable for westerns, but it is true that you will do get the cheaper air ticket. This is the power of “pengyou”. In China, the “guanxi” (关系) among pengyou (朋友) is quite important. Everyone will treat you as a friend, and everyone will offer his hands to his pengyou if he could.



Pengyou in the above situation have a wider conception. Then how do Chinese address their close friends? They call “hao pengyou”(好朋友) “zuihao de pengyou”（最好的朋友）, or sometimes “gemenr”（哥们）and “tiegemenr”（铁哥们）in Northern China. “Gemenr” has a roughly meaning with “pengyou”. Man in Northern China love to address those guys with similar age as “gemenr”, which makes two strangers felt more friendly. “Tiegemenr” is used two address one’s closet friends. Let’s imagine their relationship, which is as hard as iron that it is not easily broke up.



In North-Eastern China, pengyou can also be used to address one’s boyfriend or girlfriend. It will bring more difficulty for you have to tell which kind of friend that a speaker is referring to. Nanpengyou (男朋友) and Nupengyou（女朋友）are more commonly used phrases to address one’s boyfriend or girlfriend. With the rapid improvement of the Level of Chinese and popularization of internet in China, BF and GF has become very popular words through net. It’s important that not all Latin alphabet represent English. In China it is of highly possibility being the short form. of Chinese pinyin.  For example, Chinese netizen love to use LG and LP to refer their respective husbands and wives. LG is a short form. of Lao Gong (老公), While LP is a short form. of Lao Po (老婆).

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