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So, if I remember correctly, "девушка" can mean both "girl" (of any age) or "girlfriend" (I'm not entirely sure of this, so feel free to call me out), but what about 'подруга'? Can I safely replace 'девушка' with 'подруга'? Which of these should I use if I'm talking about a coworker of mine?

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Подруга is the feminine form of "friend", друг and can mean, depending on the context, both: either just a friend or a girlfriend (though this is figurative and obsolete).

Девушка is a girl from the age of puberty to womanhood. The other meaning is indeed girlfriend, but keep in mind that it can't be used to talk about dating someone who's in her, say, forties (which is no problem in English) - this will sound slightly off.

Девочка is just a little girl. Sometimes women refer to themselves as девочки ("ну мы же девочки, нам можно плакать") but this is nothing but a figure of speech. The other meaning would be something close to English babe ("моя хорошая девочка").

These words have different meanings, and while they are related, they're by no means interchangeable.

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    @Trey it can indeed so I've updated the answer.
    – shabunc ♦
    Nov 4, 2017 at 15:16
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    @Wilson "Подруга" nowadays is mostly used among females as their equivalent of "друг" ("friend"). Often, when a man calls a woman "подруга", it is to make it clear that there is no romantic relationship between the two: "just friends" (as we know, men and women can't be "just friends", but whatever, maybe somewhat closer than a mere colleague/acquaintance). Yet on the other hand, the word can be used as "girlfriend", not that common, but not exactly obsolete, either.
    – Headcrab
    Nov 6, 2017 at 3:24
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    "Девушка" with possessive pronoun ("Моя девушка", "его девушка") means girlfriend ("My girlfriend", "his girlfriend"). "Девушка" without possessive pronoun is just "Girl".
    – Alexander
    Nov 6, 2017 at 18:03
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    There's also подружка
    – alamar
    Nov 7, 2017 at 7:44
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    "Девушка" with possessive pronoun - exactly how it is in English. "My girl" vs "a girl" - the same. www.metrolyrics.com/supergirl-lyrics-reamonn.html
    – Arioch
    Nov 14, 2017 at 12:14
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As a native Russian speaker, I wanted to drop a couple of comments...

Девушка means "girlfriend" if and only if it comes with a possessive (pro)noun, for example: "моя девушка", "Васина девушка", "Девушка брата".

Regarding the obsolescence of подруга with the semantics of "girlfriend", I would rather disagree. A wise and cautious man keeps the word in his vocabulary and use it when he's not yet comfortable calling her "моя девушка". She'll be somewhat unhappy to hear you call her "подруга", but may actually respect you more. That basically builds another barrier on her way to your resources.

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    Downvote for sexism in the last paragraph.
    – user12019
    Apr 26, 2020 at 16:45
  • What a ridiculous assertion about women. Downvote!
    – CocoPop
    Feb 11, 2022 at 13:44
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"Which of these should I use if I'm talking about a coworker of mine?"

This part of the original question was left unanswered. A female coworker is called "сотрудница", or you can say "девушка с моей работы" for a young lady, and "женщина с моей работы" for an older one.

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    A female coworker is called "коллега", no one calls their coworkers "сотрудница", it's a word used by management. However, good point, we all indeed forgot to cover this part of the question. Welcome to the Russian SE )
    – shabunc ♦
    Jul 15, 2021 at 7:19

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