This list of extended Chinese family relationships covers family members of the same generation or younger - cousins, bothers and sisters-in-law, and nieces and nephews. ), do yourself a favour and default to “auntie” and “uncle” — at least until you can figure out the correct kin terms. Look it up now! A Fun Waste Of Champagne. 0:14. Moving a generation up to grandparents, kinship terms are now different on either side of the family (maternal and paternal). ( Log Out /  Find more Chinese words at wordhippo.com! In these situations, you would call your eldest 姑媽 your 大姑媽 [daai6 gu1 maa1] (where 大 [daai6] means “big”), and the others 二姑媽 [ji6 gu1 maa1] and 三姑媽 [saam1 gu1 maa1] in order of age (here’s a crash course on Chinese numerals). home / family / (polite) my (sister, uncle etc) / classifier for families or businesses / refers to the philosophical schools of pre-Han China / noun suffix for a specialist in some activity, such as a musician or revolutionary, corresponding to English -ist, -er, -ary or -ian / CL: 個｜个 ( Log Out /  Can’t relate? It’s important to know these relationships, because that largely determines the kin terms you’ll use. ), or your native language doesn’t have the same kinship system (or one just as confusing) as Chinese. Writing, calligraphy, stroke order, history, etymology, calligraphic style, expressions. Words for family members and other relatives in Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua), a Sinitic language spoken in China, Taiwan and many other places. Billi—An Indian nickname for your younger sis. Learn the chinese character 妹 (mèi) : younger sister. Tweet. Daily Dosage Subscribe Unsubscribe 929. Older sister in Mandarin is "jiě jie". It is generally considered impolite to call an elder sibling by name. Leave a comment about your experiences — I’d love to hear about them! Munchkin— It is a cute nickname for your little apple pie. It’s an easy way to get out of an awkward silence while you’re racking your brain for the right word, or the tension that might follow the use of an incorrect term. Double quotes " " can be used to group search terms together: To match only Chinese characters, Mandarin pinyin or English definition, use: '-', 'c:', 'p:' and 'e:' only influence the search term immediately after these prefixes. Example queries: hello, nihao, ni3hao3, 你好, rest*, zei*, *zei*, *茶, 英*公司, chinese *文, "to rest", bill -gates. 妹 Mei: Younger sister In usage, these words are usually repeated twice; e.g., 妹妹 Mei mei for one's younger sister. exploring the ins and outs of everything chinese culture. Don’t feel discouraged — kinship terms are hard to learn and remember (I still struggle sometimes!). Still confused? Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. If you examine the kanji for it, you will see that it was created by taking two different kanji, and then combining them into a … You’ll also see more of “外” [ngoi6], the “marriage by relationship” relation marker. Find more Chinese words at wordhippo.com! Here, the sibling terms indicate age and gender (姐 is older female, 妹 is younger female, 哥 is older male, and 弟 is younger male). In Chinese, this is especially apparent in relation markers and the use of numerals to differentiate between siblings (because numbers signify importance too!). Hong Kong’s Holey Skyline: Spirit Dragons or Aesthetics At Work? Either you’ve mastered the art of Chinese kinship terms (in which case, congratulations! This is a list of Mandarin Chinese names of immediate family members, and each entry is accompanied by an audio file for pronunciation and listening practice. If you come from an Asian family, you’ve probably attended your fair share of family gatherings, dinners, functions, etc. Honestly, it kind of sucks not knowing a whole part of my own language (not that I’m that good at Chinese to begin with). Chinese uses a different kinship system than English. You’ll also see the use of the relation marker “外” [ngoi6] here. Now here’s a problem: say your father has three elder sisters. The character ü can be entered as v instead. Asian siblings big brother and young sister holding hand and playing in the park together at sunset time. I’ve always struggled with addressing my Chinese relatives. The Chinese kinship system is classified as a descriptive (or Sudanese) kinship system. That’s a lot of terms! *Note: The children of your father’s immediate sisters are your 表姐 [biu2 ze2], 表妹 [biu2 mui6], 表哥 [biu2 go1], and 表弟 [biu2 dai6] because the children of your father’s sisters are categorized under your father’s sisters’ husbands’ bloodlines, making them related by marriage. Congratulations! Chinese words for sister include 妹妹, 姐姐, 姐, 修女, 妹, 姊姊, 姊 and 嬃. Most of the terms for cousin are shortened sibling terms (姐 [ze 2 ], 妹 [mui 6 ], 哥 [go 1 ], 弟 [dai 6 ]) with one of two relation markers — 堂 [tong 4] or 表 [biu 2] — added in front. Pinyin words should be entered without spaces, either with or without tone numbers: ni3hao3 or nihao. 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