victoria63 0 Report post Posted January 29, 2020 I have a big family, and I'm wondering 1) how I would call each of my family members, and 2) how my children would call all of their aunts and uncles. I have two cousins who are my dad's sibling's daughter's younger than me, or 堂妹 (Táng Mèi). Would I call them both 堂妹 (Táng Mèi), or is there a way to differentiate? I am the oldest of five children, so I have two 妹妹 (Mèimei) and two 弟弟 (Dìdì). The order is: Myself (female), Sister, Brother, Brother, Sister. How would we each call each other? (I would LOVE a long answer explaining from each sibling's perspective. Because I have two 妹妹 (Mèimei) and two 弟弟 (Dìdì), my children will have two mother's younger brothers, or 舅舅 (Jiùjiu), and two mother's younger sisters, or 阿姨 (Āyí). How will my children differentiate? (This is the most important question because I plan to raise my children speaking Mandarin.) I will appreciate all explanations, long or short! Thank you so much! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 826 Report post Posted January 29, 2020 I think you can go for younger/older 大/小 if your distinguishing between two cousins, or the other thing is numbers plus eldest - 大哥, 二哥 etc. That's ones I've heard used as a non-native so also interested when you get better answers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shelley 1,862 Report post Posted January 29, 2020 This article is fairly comprehensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_kinship#Common_extended_family_and_terminology Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dawei3 327 Report post Posted January 29, 2020 Both my American-born-Chinese friends and natives of China struggle with this. Many use a numbering system, i.e., Auntie 1, Auntie 2, Auntie 3, etc. (I realize you may want something more personal or technically correct.) Notably, those from 1 child families will rapidly lose this knowledge. Even my friends with siblings and aunts/uncles often don't know the words. As an extreme example, a friend from Xian has 14 aunts & uncles. At family gatherings, she doesn't even know many of the kids. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
imron 5,259 Report post Posted January 30, 2020 9 hours ago, victoria63 said: dad's sibling's daughter's younger than me, or 堂妹 (Táng Mèi). Technically, it's only your dad's brother's children who are 堂X. If they are your dad's sister's children they will be 表X. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
imron 5,259 Report post Posted January 30, 2020 You can also use something like this to figure out what you should be calling everyone. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
889 1,774 Report post Posted January 30, 2020 You need to distinguish how you would formally describe them from how you would refer to them in normal conversation. Conversational references probably vary by region, but if you're in Beijing, say, you can hunt down a 北京话词典. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NinjaTurtle 173 Report post Posted January 30, 2020 Here are two videos which are *very* detailed about this info: Mandarin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCFRoILS1jY Cantonese https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1HaZ4WLo50 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites