Would you refer to a friend as an "intimate"? Hi guys, I'm preparing for an IELTS test and wondering whether there's some other way to substitute the word "friend"? For instance, in Chinese there are

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Yufei Chen

Would you refer to a friend as an "intimate"? Hi guys, I'm preparing for an IELTS test and wondering whether there's some other way to substitute the word "friend"? For instance, in Chinese there are some different names for a "friend-since-childhood" or an "intimate friend". And when I look up a dictionary, I found that "intimate" can be used as a noun, but it appears to mean "intimate body parts" more often... So my question is, are there any popular word for a "friend"? Would you refer to a friend as an "intimate"? Or even if it makes sense, is it cool for oral communication, and will it be out-of-date? Thanks for helping! Cheers

May 16, 2017 5:42 PM

Answers · 8

As the others said, intimate these days would have a sexual connotation. For formal writing, friend is the only real option. As Terry said, you can qualify it, and other options for that are 'old friend' and '(old) school friend'. Acquaintance would be one option for a 'less-good' friend. For less formal situations, the options open out. Buddy, mate, pal are all pretty common (for my generation at least), and usually there are local variations, such as the Australasian 'cobber', and here a lot of people use 'bro' in that context.

May 17, 2017

In English, an "intimate" partner or friend usually refers to a lover - intimately or sexually. You often hear the term "a very close friend" or "BFF" which is "best friends forever", but this is usually a light-hearted term used among good buddies or "a good friend" or "a dear friend" which is a bit more formal or "this is my closest friend" or "this is my best friend" is very common.

May 16, 2017