This study aimed at better understanding the "namorido", a common type of relationship among young people who live in the south area of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in which, after dating during a brief period, a couple decides to live together, without necessarily intending to make it official in the future. We interviewed five women, aged 27 to 37, who work and are involved for at least one year in a "namorido" type of relationship. The interviews were semi-structured, tape-recorded and fully transcribed and the resulting texts submitted to a discourse analysis. The results point to the fact that the "namorido" seems to be a type of relationship that results from the individualism typical of our contemporary societies in which the affective bonds are more fluid and flexible. In this type of relationship, individuals seek instantaneous, thus dismissing a longer period of mutual knowledge. Besides, it is not necessary that the couple communicates or even meet his/her partner’s family members and there is no compromise with the relationship’s durability or procreation. Despite that, in many aspects, the "namorido" is similar to contemporary marriages e for the people involved in this kind of relationship, the fact that it is not made official does not mean that the partners are less compromised with it.
"namorido"; individualism; conjugality