Family members in German: die Familie
The family members in German are die Mutter (mother), der Vater (father), der Bruder (brother), die Schwester (sister), der Sohn (son), die Tochter (daughter), die Großmutter (grandmother), der Großvater (grandfather), der Onkel (uncle), die Tante (aunt) and der Cousin (cousin). The family is die Familie. German has a word English lacks, Geschwister, "brothers and sisters", and it uses the same words for "wife" and "woman" and for "husband" and "man". Below are the words with their genders, how to say them, and which family words German films say most.
Family members in German
| English | German | Say it | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| mother | die Mutter | MOO-ter | die Mütter |
| mum, mom | die Mama | MAH-ma | die Mamas |
| father | der Vater | FAH-ter | die Väter |
| dad | der Papa | PAH-pa | die Papas |
| brother | der Bruder | BROO-der | die Brüder |
| sister | die Schwester | SHVES-ter | die Schwestern |
| brothers and sisters | die Geschwister | geh-SHVIS-ter | (plural only) |
| son | der Sohn | zohn | die Söhne |
| daughter | die Tochter | TOKH-ter | die Töchter |
| parents | die Eltern | EL-tern | (plural only) |
| grandmother | die Großmutter, die Oma | GROHS-moo-ter, OH-ma | |
| grandfather | der Großvater, der Opa | GROHS-fah-ter, OH-pa | |
| uncle | der Onkel | ON-kel | die Onkel |
| aunt | die Tante | TAN-teh | die Tanten |
| cousin | der Cousin, die Cousine | koo-ZANG, koo-ZEE-neh | |
| husband | der Mann | man | die Männer |
| wife | die Frau | frow | die Frauen |
V in Vater is said as f, and ch in Tochter is the rasp of Scottish loch. Every German noun has a capital letter, and the article is part of the word to learn.
Mann and Frau
German has formal words for husband and wife, der Ehemann and die Ehefrau, but in speech people say mein Mann, "my husband", and meine Frau, "my wife", with the ordinary words for man and woman. The counts show how far the everyday words dominate: Ehemann is said 54.0 times per million words, while Mann, in all its senses, is said 1426.1 times. Frau also means "Mrs": Frau Schmidt.
Geschwister, Eltern and Großeltern
- Geschwister means "brothers and sisters", "siblings" without the formal ring the English word has: Hast du Geschwister?, "Do you have any brothers or sisters?".
- Eltern, "parents", and Großeltern, "grandparents", exist only in the plural.
- Oma and Opa are the everyday words for grandma and grandpa; Großmutter and Großvater are more formal.
Which family words do German films say most?
We counted each family word in German film and television subtitles, singular and plural together.
| # | Word | Meaning | Per million words | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vater | father | 698.3 | |
| 2 | Mutter | mother | 610.5 | |
| 3 | Familie | family | 366.8 | |
| 4 | Bruder | brother | 366.1 | |
| 5 | Sohn | son | 365.9 | |
| 6 | Schwester | sister | 267.8 | also “nurse” |
| 7 | Tochter | daughter | 252.9 | |
| 8 | Mama | mum, mom | 233.0 | Mama and Mutti |
| 9 | Eltern | parents | 167.9 | |
| 10 | Papa | dad | 164.3 | Papa and Vati |
| 11 | Onkel | uncle | 119.0 | |
| 12 | Tante | aunt | 68.9 | |
| 13 | Ehemann | husband | 54.0 | Mann is said far more |
| 14 | Cousin | cousin | 52.8 | |
| 15 | Oma | grandma | 44.7 | |
| 16 | Großvater | grandfather | 40.7 | |
| 17 | Großmutter | grandmother | 35.9 | |
| 18 | Opa | grandpa | 34.7 | |
| 19 | Enkel | grandchild | 22.4 | |
| 20 | Ehefrau | wife | 16.2 | Frau is said far more |
| 21 | Nichte | niece | 13.0 | |
| 22 | Neffe | nephew | 10.9 | |
| 23 | Geschwister | brothers and sisters | 7.1 |
Vater is first, at 698.3 times per million words, ahead of Mutter at 610.5. Familie, Bruder and Sohn follow almost level. The everyday Oma is said more than the formal Großmutter, 44.7 against 35.9, but for grandfathers it is the other way round: Großvater 40.7, Opa 34.7.
Geschwister is near the bottom, at 7.1: people mostly say which brother or sister they mean. Schwester is a ceiling, because it is also how a nurse is addressed.
Learn them in a sentence
- Ich habe einen Bruder und zwei Schwestern. — I have one brother and two sisters.
- Meine Mutter heißt Anna. — My mother is called Anna.
- Wie alt ist dein Vater? — How old is your father?
- Meine Großeltern wohnen in Berlin. — My grandparents live in Berlin.
- Hast du Kinder? — Do you have children?
Which article goes with meine and dein, and why it changes, is in der, die or das. The family words are taught early in the free German course, Verbavia (our own course), with a recording of each. Mutter, Vater and Familie are all among the thousand words German films say most, though none makes the 100 most common German words, which are almost all grammar. Other everyday sets: greetings in German, colours in German and numbers 1 to 100.
Sources
- Wiktionary (German): Geschwister, Eltern, Mann and Frau, for the senses and plural forms.
- The counts are from OpenSubtitles 2018 (Lison, P. & Tiedemann, J., 2016, aclanthology.org) through Hermit Dave's FrequencyWords lists, content licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, github.com. They are computed by
scripts/frequency_thousand.pyand printed from its output rather than typed.