In mentioning or referencing the people most dear in your life to others in casual social conversations how do you refer to them? She/he’s my partner, companion, girlfriend/boyfriend, significant other, the person with whom I share my life, master, mistress, the old lady… or what?
SO, Boyfriend or fiance as the mood strikes.
SO, partner or ‘himself’. We are engaged, but I’ve not referred to him as my fiance.
In the UK it’s become pretty standard to refer to your “other” as your partner (some people even do this if they’re married).
Yes, I mostly use partner, although I’m not particularly fond of the word.
However, whilst living in rural Greece I’ve tended to use wife when talking to the locals, especially older ones, just for an easy life.
“My y’know snapsnappointwagfinger… yeah.”
Thank goodness we are getting married, because that would get kind of ridiculous after 20 years.
That Woman.
I once heard some refer to their partner as their “s’pose” as in “S’pose they’ll ever get married?”
Partner in more formal contexts or when I want to emphasise the bond. Boyfriend informally, though I’m not completely comfortable with it at our age. My lad is the one I prefer. He calls me his partner, his girlfriend or the missus.
Bit of a hijack is how to refer to his daughter. Partner or boyfriend’s daughter doesn’t really indicate our relationship so ever since she asked “Are you sort of like my stepmum?” I call her my sort of stepdaughter.
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edited for spelling and punctuation*
Well, the last one was “That Guy Who’s Always Hanging Around My House”. The one before him was “My Boyfriend”, but it didn’t feel so silly since we were in our early twenties. Now it’s usually “My Boyfriend” with a raised eyebrow that is a combination of “what a silly word for a middle-aged man” and “I’m not sure how the hell THAT happened.”
We’ve lived together for 15 years and we have no plans to get married unless it would improve our tax situation. (I know that isn’t very romantic but neither of us cares about some official sanction.) I call him my partner because ‘boyfriend’ sounds silly at my age and doesn’t really convey that we own a home together and are as committed as any married couple, and it’s shorter than ‘that guy that I live with’.
We’re 50 and 56, and “boyfriend” / “girlfriend” is definitely awkward but we still mostly go with that.
My “future ex-wife”
I’m 33. I went through a phase of thinking boyfriend was silly, but we’ve been together almost 12 years now, and I find I just don’t care anymore. In print, it’s always “the SO” and in words, almost always boyfriend, though I will say husband to people I will never see again if it comes up.
I keep meaning to use the word “partner” but I feel as though I am appropriating the word gay couples use.
Depends on who I’m talking to. Either “partner,” “husband,” “boyfriend,” or “slave.”
This is exactly my position, including the tax situation.
I may, however, have the advantage over you. My partner is a tax accountant and needs to keep herself aware of any changes in tax law for professional reasons.
I live in constant fear of being woken up one morning and told that I’ve got to present myself at the nearest church forthwith in the interests of financial expediency.
We’re in our twenties, so I don’t feel that “girlfriend” sounds silly yet. When I’m thirty, though, I’ll have to think of something else… I don’t like “partner” (too vague; too PC), and I don’t like “significant other” (too long!), but what else is there? “Lady friend”? 
My sweetie, unless I’m somewhere where that could be met with hostility…then it’s my SO or boyfriend.
Chances are I won’t even notice when it does become beneficial. If we did it we’d just go down to the county and get it done like any other bureaucratic detail and not even bother to tell anyone. We have all of the appliances and china that we need already.
My girlfriend, my partner or (more casually) my misses (which is a common term amongst British lesbians)