I worked thru lesson 3.6 and am curious about friends. There is an example of a best girlfriend (Freundin) and a best boyfriend (Freund), is there a general word in german for a friend or is it always specific to the gender as in the example? Thanks, Walleyenorth

Hi there, in German you always indicate the gender when talking about friends. Freundin (female friend) Freund (male friend) Freunde (more than one friend or a group of friends) When you talk about people that you know who are not friends you say Bekannte (female acquaintance) Bekannter (male acquaintance) Bekannte (more than one or a group) If you want to point out that a friend is not just a friend but in fact your boy or girl friend you say "mein Freund" or "meine Freundin" instead of "eine Freundin" or "ein Freund" ("ein Freund von mir" = a friend of mine) I hope that helps. Paul

Vielen Dank! Very helpful.