boyfriend

«boyfriend» in Mova's school dictionary: a boy or man that someone is in a romantic relationship with — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a boyfriend, boyfriends)

meaning for a pupil

A boyfriend is a boy or man that someone is in a romantic relationship with. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life teenagers and adults talk about their boyfriend; in stories a character may «have a boyfriend». It is a personal, family-life word. Phrases: her boyfriend, his boyfriend, my boyfriend, ex-boyfriend.

examples

• My sister's boyfriend came for Sunday lunch. tree →
• Auntie Jo and her boyfriend went to Ireland on holiday. tree →
• Her boyfriend gave her flowers on her birthday. tree →
• He introduced his boyfriend to the family. tree →
• My cousin's ex-boyfriend still sends her birthday cards. tree →
• The film is about a girl who meets her boyfriend at school. tree →

note

Countable noun, written as one word. The female pair is «girlfriend». A boy who is just a friend is usually called «a friend», not «a boyfriend».

In the corpora

• "Partner" means a boyfriend, girlfriend or someone you live with without marrying.
• "Friend" can politely mean a boyfriend or girlfriend.
• "Gentleman friend" means an older woman's boyfriend (old-fashioned).
• Someone who is heartbroken is very sad because a boyfriend or girlfriend has ended things; being gentle and giving them space helps.
• In British slang, to «fancy» someone means to like them as a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «boyfriend» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.