Family members in Portuguese: a família
The family members in Portuguese are mãe (mother), pai (father), irmão (brother), irmã (sister), filho (son), filha (daughter), avó (grandmother), avô (grandfather), tio (uncle), tia (aunt) and primo (cousin). The family is a família. Two small things trip learners up: avó and avô differ only by their accent, and pais, the plural of "father", is the ordinary word for "parents". Below are the words, how to say them, where Brazil and Portugal differ, and which family words films say most.
Family members in Portuguese
| English | Portuguese | Say it (Brazil) | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| mother | mãe | mayng | mães |
| father | pai | pie | pais |
| brother | irmão | eer-MOWNG | irmãos |
| sister | irmã | eer-MANG | irmãs |
| son | filho | FEE-lyoo | filhos |
| daughter | filha | FEE-lya | filhas |
| grandmother | avó | a-VAW | avós |
| grandfather | avô | a-VOH | avós |
| uncle | tio | CHEE-oo | tios |
| aunt | tia | CHEE-a | tias |
| cousin | primo, prima | PREE-moo | primos, primas |
| nephew, niece | sobrinho, sobrinha | so-BREE-nyoo | sobrinhos |
| grandchild | neto, neta | NEH-too | netos |
| husband | marido | ma-REE-doo | maridos |
| wife | esposa, mulher | es-POH-za, moo-LYEHR |
The tilde in mãe and irmão marks a nasal vowel: the sound goes through the nose. In Brazil t before the sound "ee" is said "ch", which is why tio sounds like "CHEE-oo".
Avó and avô, pais and parentes
- Avó (grandmother) has an open ó, like the vowel in English "saw"; avô (grandfather) has a closed ô, like the vowel in "go". The written accent is the only difference on the page.
- Avós is "grandparents", and also "grandmothers".
- Pais is "fathers", and much more often "parents": meus pais, "my parents". Parentes, which looks like "parents", means "relatives".
- Irmãos is "brothers", and also "brothers and sisters"; filhos is "sons", and also "children".
Brazil and Portugal
The everyday words for mum and dad are different on the two sides of the Atlantic, and the subtitles show it.
| Word | Meaning | Brazil, per million | Portugal, per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| mamãe | mum | 260.3 | 21.4 |
| mamã | mum | 3.5 | 102.7 |
| papai | dad | 303.7 | 24.0 |
| papá | dad | 4.5 | 113.3 |
| esposa | wife | 283.5 | 139.8 |
Brazil says mamãe and papai, and Portugal mamã and papá. Esposa, "wife", is said about twice as often in Brazilian subtitles as in Portugal's; mulher, "woman", also means "wife" in both. Brazilian children also call their grandparents vovó and vovô. More of the differences between the two are in Brazilian vs European Portuguese.
Which family words do Portuguese films say most?
We counted each family word in film and television subtitles, from Brazil and from Portugal.
| # | Word | Meaning | Brazil, per million | Portugal, per million | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pai | father | 1143.8 | 1299.3 | |
| 2 | mãe | mother | 1076.4 | 1171.7 | |
| 3 | filho | son | 627.9 | 625.8 | |
| 4 | família | family | 450.5 | 453.7 | |
| 5 | irmão | brother | 345.5 | 342.1 | |
| 6 | filha | daughter | 319.8 | 318.8 | |
| 7 | esposa | wife | 297.5 | 147.7 | mulher, also “woman”, is said more |
| 8 | marido | husband | 251.9 | 242.5 | |
| 9 | irmã | sister | 251.2 | 240.7 | |
| 10 | pais | parents | 219.1 | 217.4 | also “fathers” |
| 11 | filhos | children; sons | 208.3 | 212.2 | |
| 12 | tio | uncle | 135.9 | 125.3 | |
| 13 | tia | aunt | 82.4 | 68.7 | |
| 14 | primo | cousin | 67.5 | 68.0 | |
| 15 | irmãos | brothers; brothers and sisters | 66.1 | 69.2 | |
| 16 | avó | grandmother | 50.2 | 84.7 | |
| 17 | avô | grandfather | 45.9 | 72.7 | |
| 18 | sobrinho | nephew, niece | 34.5 | 32.9 | |
| 19 | neto | grandchild | 32.1 | 29.6 | |
| 20 | avós | grandparents; grandmothers | 7.3 | 7.7 |
Pai is first in both countries, ahead of mãe: 1143.8 against 1076.4 times per million words in Brazil. Filho, família and irmão follow in the same order in both. Pais is a ceiling, since a few of its uses are "fathers" and not "parents".
Learn them in a sentence
- Eu tenho um irmão e duas irmãs. — I have one brother and two sisters.
- Minha mãe se chama Ana. — My mother is called Ana. (Brazil)
- Quantos anos tem o seu pai? — How old is your father?
- Meus avós moram em São Paulo. — My grandparents live in São Paulo.
- Você tem filhos? — Do you have children?
The family words are taught early in the free Portuguese course, Verbavia (our own course), with a recording of each. Mãe, pai, filho and família are all among the thousand words Brazilian films say most, though none makes the 100 most common Portuguese words, which are almost all grammar. Other everyday sets: greetings in Portuguese, colours in Portuguese and numbers 1 to 100.
Sources
- Priberam, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa: avó, avô, pai, parente, mamã and mamãe.
- The Brazilian and European figures are from the separate FrequencyWords lists for Brazilian Portuguese (
pt_br) and European Portuguese (pt). - 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.