Amigues

Amigues is a Catalan noun that designates female friends. It is the feminine plural form of amiga, used to refer to a group of women, while the masculine or mixed-gender equivalent is amics. In some contexts, amici (or amics i amigues) is used to denote a group that includes men and women, but standard practice distinguishes between amics for masculine or mixed groups and amigues for female-only groups.

Morphology and usage in Catalan reflect gender, with amiga as the singular feminine form and amics as the masculine plural. Amigues, with the suffix -es, is the typical feminine plural. In contemporary usage, amigues is sometimes employed as a gender-inclusive plural to refer to a group of friends regardless of gender, paralleling broader efforts to adopt inclusive language; in such cases the form is used in informal writing and speech, and some speakers prefer explicit phrases like amics i amigues to avoid ambiguity.

Etymology traces amigues to the Latin amīcus, through the Catalan amiga, sharing cognates with related Romance languages. The term is common in everyday conversation across Catalan-speaking regions, including Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community, as well as in Roussillon where Catalan is used. In formal writing or when the gender composition is unknown or mixed, many style guides recommend using amics for the generic plural and reserving amigues for female-only groups.