Yes, I’ve encountered that usage too - in various exchanges on French Twitter threads
That sounds a bit like in Nottingham we call fat women bonny, which sounds more polite, but further north it is far more complimentary, meaning beautiful .
Ma moitié is non gender specific! The “ma” is because “moitié” is a feminine word no matter whether it’s a man, women or a “they”.
That’s outrageously woke!
I am indeed outrageous!!
Ma moitié(e), it depends who is the other half. Hope this helps.
I often hear “son copin” or “sa copine” when folk are talking about someone else’s Partner (I’m supposing not married or they’d say époux(se) or mari(e) …??).
Non désolée, c’est déjà ‘la moitié’ on ne peut pas y rajouter un ‘e’. It doesn’t matter who or what the other half may be, moitié does not change.
That could be a mistress, as in the “I don’t think you’ve met my niece / secretary / neighbour?”
Ah… nope… not that sort of situation.
Yes, copain/copine = boyfriend/girlfriend
Husband/wife = mari/femme
Yes particularly when it is son copain/sa copine full stop ie no name.
But it can also just be a friend, mon copain so and so is just a friend and je vais déjeuner avec des copines isn’t some sort of Sapphic orgy.
Yep… I understand the “friend” bit… the particular instance I am thinking of are couples who have recently set up home together but are not married…
Oh yes we say so and so et son copain/ sa copine. We could also say ami/e. Could be recent, or they could be under 30something.
Compagnon/compagne is generally for a longer established relationship (but not an expression I greatly care for anyway, particularly compagne, sounds very Neanderthal to my ears). Conjoint is more formal.
Christine, Fran’s English aide de toilette, with whom I have long, and sometimes hilarious discussions, and I touch on this subject in English particularly, but also in French, and the other day she described, as a teenager, her first holiday away from her parents with a ‘girlfriend’. I knew what she meant but I remarked that the term did not lead me astray as to the meaning. But if I had said ‘my boyfriend’, that would have had a much different connotation. We knew what we meant, but would a foreigner with the level of understanding of most of us here in French have? I doubt it and much of the above discussion seems to confirm that.
And of course these things change in language over time. In my above example with Christine I would probably have said ‘my mate’ to indicate a male friend, but nowadays younger females often refer to male friends and colleagues as ‘my mate’. Coming from a different generation it grates a bit on my ears.
We say ‘pote’ for that, Mon pote or ma pote, no possible romantic interest whatsoever.
I really must stop reading de Sade !
Actually, I’ve just remembered another one my ex-father-in-law (a pied noir rapatrié to Marseille from Algeria) used to say, when telling gossip about women he knew : “la bonne amie”.