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As far as I know, "married" (man) is женатый (short form женат) and "married" (woman) is замужняя (short form замужем).

Likewise, the verb "to marry" with a man as the subject is жениться/пожениться and with a woman as the subject, it becomes выходить замуж/выйти замуж.

But, is there a generic word for both genders? How can I say "they got married"?

I've heard of "Они поженились", but I'm not sure.

Баян Купи-ка
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swrutra
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2 Answers2

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Well, there's official and very pompous "сочетаться браком" or even "сочетаться узами брака" but no one sane will use it in casual speech. "Пожениться" is indeed the form that can be used in general.

Other words worth to know:

расписаться (here - зарегистрировать в официальном учреждении свой брак с кем-либо )

бракосочетаться (almost as bad as "сочетаться браком")

обвенчаться - strictly speaking, it's only about a marriage committed in church but in real-life usage it's quite often about any official marriage.

shabunc
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  • Thank you. Which means that, in practice, the generic verb is somewhat discriminatory in favour of men? – swrutra Jan 25 '18 at 00:27
  • @swrutra well it's historical fact that for centuries in all (at least) western societies - including English-speaking countries by the way - it's man who was choosing a wife. Is it sexist? May be in some historical perspective I'd say yes. Now? No, definitely no. – shabunc Jan 25 '18 at 00:31
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    I've never heard "обвенчаться" said about anything but church marriage. I'm really not sure if you would be understood correctly using обвенчаться meaning non-church marriage. – Alissa Jan 25 '18 at 13:25
  • @Alissa my experience is slightly different. It's not that often how, say, ограбление and кража being confused, but still a thing. – shabunc Jan 25 '18 at 13:44
  • @shabunc I believe you, but I wouldn't recommend using it to learner. And I'd argue about how often it is used for non-church marriage. – Alissa Jan 25 '18 at 14:17
  • @swutra, about being discriminatory or not, consider this: if you are talking about people of mixed sex (man and woman, two men and woman, man and two women, etc.), any words that have male and female forms, are to be used in male grammatical form. – Alissa Jan 25 '18 at 14:21
  • @Alissa good point (so I'm glad this post has your comments) - yes, we do not recommend to use it until a learner will be more fluent in Russian ) – shabunc Jan 25 '18 at 14:45
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When speaking about a married couple as a whole (in plural) "они поженились", or even "они женаты" can be used, even though, strictly speaking, only the man "поженился/женат", the woman "вышла замуж/замужем". Can't think of any common singular synonym that can be used for both sexes. In more official language, you could say "состоит в браке" or "вступил[а] в брак", "заключил[а] брак" (although the inflection still spoils the gender neutrality somewhat).

Headcrab
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