5 Ways to Politely Move Someone Into The Friend Zone

Friend zoning, unfortunately, has a lot of negative connotations around it. People always take it as a rude gesture. Although, the act of putting someone in a friend zone really hurts, sometimes, it is absolutely necessary. If you have to put someone in the friend-zone you are in a cringe-worthy position, it is not fun. Even if you are on the other end of the table, it’s better to be friend zoned than to be led on by someone who has no intention of being with you.

Although it is a necessary evil, it is really difficult to nicely tell someone that you only want to be ‘just friends’ with them. Here are a couple of ways to politely move someone into the friend zone:

* Give subtle yet obvious hints

One of the best things you can do is to hint to this person that you're not interested. Keep your responses quip and curt. If he or she gives you a compliment, rather than acting weird about it or forcing yourself to compliment him or her back, just say, Thank you.This way, you aren’t giving him or her any wrong ideas, and you’re still being as polite as you can be. In intense cases, if the person tries to make a move when you’re together, instead of freaking out, start talking about a random subject to divert him or her. However, if your friend really won’t give up in trying to make a move, it’s perfectly acceptable to push him or her away.

* Suggest group hangouts

If you genuinely like spending time with this person, but don’t want him or her to get the wrong idea, make sure other people are always there.While it's acceptable for friends to have one-on-one hangouts, it would be better to only hang out in groups in this scenario.Not only will this lessen this person’s chances, it will also reflect you only see him or her the same way you see your other friends.This is a rather quick and easy way to place someone in the friend zone, all while keeping the pain at a minimum.

* Don’t ignore the person, but don’t give hope

If the person reaches out to you too much, don’t be the person who stops responding. Even though that seems like a good way to hint you’re not interested, it’s basically just taking the easy way out.You can still talk to him or her. Just do so without giving him or her the wrong idea. But if you feel that the flirting is getting too much to handle, you can subtly change the subject by asking a question.This will make it clear to him or her that you don’t want to return the flirting. However, if despite all you efforts the person stays persistent, you can choose to stop responding totally.

* Be straight forward

To politely friend zone someone, the most important thing you can do is just be honest.Sit him or her down and talk to him or her face to face. Explain you only see him or her as a friend. Although, this is the most difficult to do out of all these ideas, but it’s also the most respectful and mature thing to do. It is important to tell them that even though you acknowledge their feelings, you don’t feel the same and you aren’t able to respond with the same feelings. If you emphasize the fact you don’t want to hurt him or her, it can make the situation a little bit more bearable.

It is inevitable that, when you friend zone someone, he or she might feel a little hurt anyway, but he or she won’t think of you as a terrible person in the end.