Family Members in Chinese: The Complete Guide to Kinship Terms
Dad is 爸爸 bàba, mom is 妈妈 māma (媽媽), and after that English stops being a useful guide. Chinese has no plain word for "brother," "grandma," or "aunt" — every kinship term encodes whether the relative is on your father's or mother's side and whether they're older or younger than the person connecting you. "Grandmother" alone splits into at least four common words depending on side and region. This guide gives you the full system: the terms, the logic behind them, and which ones differ between the Mainland and Taiwan.
- Siblings always encode age: 哥哥 older brother, 弟弟 younger brother, 姐姐 older sister, 妹妹 younger sister. There is no everyday word for just "brother."
- Grandparents encode side: 爷爷/奶奶 for your father's parents, 外公/外婆 for your mother's — with regional variants 姥姥/姥爷 (northern Mainland) and 阿公/阿嬤 (Taiwan).
- Aunts and uncles encode side and age: 叔叔 is specifically your father's younger brother; your mother's brother is 舅舅.
- Cousins split into 堂 (father's brother's children) and 表 (everyone else): 表哥, 堂妹, etc.
- Family members are addressed by kinship term, not name — calling your older sister by her given name sounds rude.
What are the basic family members in Chinese?
Start with the immediate family. Note the doubled syllables (爸爸, 哥哥) — that's the normal spoken form; the second syllable is pronounced in the neutral tone.
| English | Simplified | Traditional | Pinyin | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| father / dad | 爸爸 | 爸爸 | bàba | 父亲 fùqīn (父親) is the formal word |
| mother / mom | 妈妈 | 媽媽 | māma | 母亲 mǔqīn (母親) is the formal word |
| older brother | 哥哥 | 哥哥 | gēge | also a friendly address for slightly older men |
| younger brother | 弟弟 | 弟弟 | dìdi | |
| older sister | 姐姐 | 姐姐 | jiějie | |
| younger sister | 妹妹 | 妹妹 | mèimei | |
| son | 儿子 | 兒子 | érzi | |
| daughter | 女儿 | 女兒 | nǚ'ér | |
| husband | 丈夫 / 老公 | 丈夫 / 老公 | zhàngfu / lǎogōng | 老公 is the casual everyday word |
| wife | 妻子 / 老婆 / 太太 | 妻子 / 老婆 / 太太 | qīzi / lǎopó / tàitai | 老婆 casual; 太太 also "Mrs." |
The sibling terms are non-negotiable: to say "I have a brother" you must decide whether he's older or younger. If you genuinely need the neutral concept, 兄弟姐妹 xiōngdì jiěmèi "brothers and sisters" covers siblings as a group.
Why does Chinese have four words for grandmother?
Because the language distinguishes your father's parents from your mother's parents, and then regions disagree on what to call the mother's side. Historically the father's line was the "inner" family — which is why maternal grandparents carry the prefix 外 wài, literally "outside."
| Relative | Standard | Northern Mainland | Taiwan (colloquial) |
|---|---|---|---|
| father's father | 爷爷 yéye (爺爺) | 爷爷 | 阿公 āgōng |
| father's mother | 奶奶 nǎinai | 奶奶 | 阿嬤 āmà (also written 阿嬷) |
| mother's father | 外公 wàigōng | 姥爷 lǎoye (姥爺) | 外公 / 阿公 |
| mother's mother | 外婆 wàipó | 姥姥 lǎolao | 外婆 / 阿嬤 |
All of these are living, common words — which one a family uses depends on region and habit. 姥姥/姥爷 dominate in northern China; 外公/外婆 are standard in the south and in Taiwan; Taiwanese families also use 阿公/阿嬤, borrowed from Taiwanese Hokkien, for grandparents on either side. The choice carries enough identity that when a Shanghai textbook swapped 外婆 for 姥姥 in 2018, calling 外婆 "dialect," the public pushback made national news and the change was reversed. The pairs 姥姥↔外婆 and 姥爷↔外公 are among the 89 reviewed Mainland↔Taiwan word pairs in the Literate Chinese catalog (July 2026) — the app swaps them automatically based on your region setting, the same way it handles 地铁/捷运 for "subway."
How do you say aunt and uncle in Chinese?
The same two questions — which side, and older or younger than your parent — generate the whole set. Here are the terms for blood relatives:
| Relative | Word | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| father's older brother | 伯伯 / 伯父 | bóbo / bófù |
| father's younger brother | 叔叔 | shūshu |
| father's sister | 姑姑 / 姑妈 (姑媽) | gūgu / gūmā |
| mother's brother | 舅舅 | jiùjiu |
| mother's sister | 阿姨 / 姨妈 (姨媽) | āyí / yímā |
Their spouses have their own titles (伯母 bómǔ, 婶婶 shěnshen 嬸嬸, 舅妈 jiùmā 舅媽, 姑丈 gūzhàng, 姨丈 yízhàng, among regional variants), but don't try to memorize the full grid up front. Two of these words escaped the family entirely and became polite address for strangers: any friendly middle-aged man can be 叔叔 and any middle-aged woman 阿姨 — it's what children call their parents' friends, neighbors, and shopkeepers.
How do cousins work? 堂 vs 表
Cousins split by one rule: children of your father's brothers are 堂 táng cousins (traditionally the same surname, the same clan); all other cousins — through your mother, or through your father's sisters — are 表 biǎo, literally "outer." Combine the prefix with the sibling terms: 堂哥 older male cousin on the paternal-uncle side, 表妹 younger female cousin on the 表 side, and so on. Age relative to you decides 哥/弟/姐/妹, exactly as with siblings.
The 家 word family
家 jiā means home and family at once, and it's one of the most productive characters in the language. Across the 658 graded stories in the Literate Chinese catalog (July 2026), 家 is the 27th most frequent character — 870 occurrences out of 141,730 hanzi, in the same league as 好 (24th) and far ahead of 爸 (141st). You cannot read Chinese without meeting it constantly:
Addressing family vs talking about them
Within a Chinese family, you address relatives by their kinship term, not their name. You call your older sister 姐 or 姐姐, never her given name; parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles likewise. Given names flow downward only — parents use them for children, older siblings for younger ones. Referring to family in conversation is more relaxed: 我爸 "my dad," 我妈 "my mom," 我哥 "my older brother" are the natural casual forms, with the formal 父亲/母亲 reserved for writing and formal speech. One regional footnote: on the Mainland, 爱人 àiren (愛人) is an established word for one's spouse — in Taiwan the same word leans toward "sweetheart/lover," so 先生 "husband" and 太太 "wife" are the safe polite choices there.
Family words are also where graded reading pays off fastest, because stories force you to track who's who. The free story Making Dinner runs on 妈妈 from start to finish, and The Snow Queen features a storytelling 奶奶 — both readable in the browser. When you're ready, try reading your first story, and drill the kinship terms that won't stick with spaced-repetition flashcards.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between 姥姥 and 外婆?
Both mean maternal grandmother. 姥姥 lǎolao is the northern Mainland word; 外婆 wàipó is standard in southern China and Taiwan. Neither is more correct — families simply inherit one. Learn to recognize both, and use whichever your Chinese-speaking circle uses.
Do Chinese people call their siblings by name?
Younger siblings, yes; older siblings, no. Age hierarchy runs one way: you address an older brother as 哥/哥哥 and an older sister as 姐/姐姐, while they may call you by your given name or a nickname. Using an older sibling's given name to their face reads as disrespectful.
How do I say "family" — 家, 家人, or 家庭?
家 jiā is home/household ("我家有四口人" — my family has four people), 家人 jiārén means the family members themselves, and 家庭 jiātíng is the family as a social unit ("a happy family" — 幸福的家庭). For "my family members," 家人 is usually the word you want.
What should I call my partner's parents?
Before marriage, the friendly-stranger titles 叔叔 and 阿姨 are the standard, safe choice. After marriage, spouses traditionally switch to 爸/妈 for their in-laws — a moment with real ceremonial weight in many families.
Why does 外 ("outside") mark the mother's side?
Traditional Chinese kinship was patrilineal: children belonged to the father's clan, so the mother's relatives were the "outside" family — 外公, 外婆, 外甥 (a sister's son). The terms are fossilized history, not a comment on anyone's closeness to their grandma today.
