【Japanese Vocabulary】My family

Vocabulary

English	Kana	Kanji	Romaji (with space)	Romaji
my mother	はは	母	ha ha	haha
my father	ちち	父	chi chi	chichi
my older sister	あね	姉	a ne	ane
my older brother	あに	兄	a ni	ani
my younger sister	いもうと	妹	i mo u to	imouto
my younger brother	おとうと	弟	o to u to	otouto
my grandmother	そぼ	祖母	so bo	sobo
my grand father	そふ	祖父	so fu	sofu
my aunt	おば	叔母	o ba	oba
my uncle	おじ	叔父	o ji	oji

Pronunciation

Note: for your own family only

The words above are used when you talk about your family.

Use those when you talk about somebody else’s family.

Extension 1: the oldest, the youngest

Use 一番上の for the oldest and 一番下の for the youngest to describe people in your family.

English	Kana	Kana + Kanji	Romaji (with space)	Romaji
the oldest	いちばん　うえ　の	一番　上　の	i chi ba n / u e / no	ichiban ue no
the youngest	いちばん　した　の	一番　下　の	i chi ba n / shi ta / no	ichiban shita no

Extension 2: plural

Put a counter for people after brothers or sisters if you want to talk about more than one brother or sister.

English	Kana	Kanji	Romaji (with space)	Romaji
two younger sisters	いもうと　ふたり	妹　二人	i mo u to / fu ta ri	imouto futari
three older brothers	おとうと　さんにん	弟　三人	o to u to / sa n ni n	otouto sannin

Extension 3: How you call people in your family

For example, you may like to say to your mother, “I am sorry mum.” when you did something wrong.

In this case, you need to say, お母さん、ごめんなさい。not 母、ごめんなさい。

Here is the quick index of how you call people in your family.

The words in yellow are most commonly used:

Video

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