Family words come up in your first conversation with anyone in Germany and in your first week of paperwork. They're also one of the tidiest corners of German vocabulary, because the language builds most of them out of parts you can reuse: Groß- makes a grandparent, Ur- makes a great-grandparent, Schwieger- makes an in-law, Stief- makes a step-relative.
Learn fifteen core words and three prefixes, and you've covered a family tree of about forty people.
mother
die Mutter
father
der Vater
parents
die Eltern
child
das Kind
children
die Kinder
son
der Sohn
daughter
die Tochter
brother
der Bruder
sister
die Schwester
siblings
die Geschwister
husband
der Mann
wife
die Frau
grandmother
die Großmutter
grandfather
der Großvater
grandparents
die Großeltern
Practice these words
die Mutter
Quick notes:
- Die Eltern and die Geschwister exist only in the plural. There's no German word for "a sibling" — you say mein Bruder or meine Schwester, or ein Geschwisterkind if you're filling in a form. Plural-only nouns get a mention in the plurals lesson.
- Several of these take an umlaut in the plural and nothing else: die Mutter → die Mütter, der Vater → die Väter, der Bruder → die Brüder, die Tochter → die Töchter. The article and the umlaut do all the work.
- Der Mann means both "man" and "husband"; die Frau means both "woman" and "wife." Context decides — meine Frau is your wife, eine Frau is a woman. On official forms you'll see the unambiguous versions: Ehemann and Ehefrau.
What Germans Actually Call Them
mum
die Mama
dad
der Papa
granny
die Oma
grandad
der Opa
granny (affectionate)
die Omi
grandad (affectionate)
der Opi
mum (older, more eastern)
die Mutti
Practice these words
die Mama
Quick note: Oma and Opa are the normal words, not baby talk. Großmutter and Großvater are correct but formal — you'd use them on a form or when talking about someone else's family, rarely when speaking to or about your own.
Extended Family
uncle
der Onkel
aunt
die Tante
cousin (male)
der Cousin
cousin (female)
die Cousine
nephew
der Neffe
niece
die Nichte
grandson
der Enkel
granddaughter
die Enkelin
grandchildren
die Enkelkinder
great-grandmother
die Urgroßmutter
great-grandfather
der Urgroßvater
relatives
die Verwandten
the whole family
die ganze Familie
Practice these words
der Onkel
Quick notes:
- Ur- stacks. A great-great-grandmother is die Ururgroßmutter, and Germans will keep adding ur for as long as the family tree does.
- Cousin is borrowed from French and said the French way, roughly "koo-ZÄNG." The older German words Vetter and Base still appear in books and in rural speech, but nobody under sixty uses them.
- Enkelin shows the -in ending that makes any masculine person-word feminine — the same ending as Lehrer → Lehrerin.
The Schwieger- Family
mother-in-law
die Schwiegermutter
father-in-law
der Schwiegervater
parents-in-law
die Schwiegereltern
son-in-law
der Schwiegersohn
daughter-in-law
die Schwiegertochter
brother-in-law
der Schwager
sister-in-law
die Schwägerin
Practice these words
die Schwiegermutter
Quick note: the pattern breaks exactly once. Siblings-in-law aren't Schwiegerbruder and Schwiegerschwester — they're der Schwager and die Schwägerin, which are their own words.
Step-Families and Partners
stepmother
die Stiefmutter
stepfather
der Stiefvater
stepson
der Stiefsohn
half-brother
der Halbbruder
half-sister
die Halbschwester
partner
der Partner / die Partnerin
boyfriend
der Freund
girlfriend
die Freundin
single parent
alleinerziehend
blended family
die Patchworkfamilie
Practice these words
die Stiefmutter
Quick notes:
- Patchworkfamilie is real German, not a joke — it's the standard word for a blended family and it appears in newspapers and official statistics.
- Alleinerziehend is an adjective, not a noun: Ich bin alleinerziehend. It's a category with its own benefits and tax class, so you'll meet the word on forms.
Talking About Your Family
Do you have children?
Hast du Kinder?
I have two children.
Ich habe zwei Kinder.
I don't have any children.
Ich habe keine Kinder.
I have a brother and a sister.
Ich habe einen Bruder und eine Schwester.
I'm an only child.
Ich bin Einzelkind.
This is my wife.
Das ist meine Frau.
This is my partner.
Das ist mein Partner.
My parents live in Italy.
Meine Eltern wohnen in Italien.
How old is your daughter?
Wie alt ist deine Tochter?
We're expecting a baby.
Wir bekommen ein Baby.
Practice these words
Hast du Kinder?
Quick note: Ich habe keine Kinder uses keine rather than nicht — the rule is in nicht or kein.
The Words German Forms Ask For
Every German form has a field called Familienstand — marital status. These four words are the options, and you'll tick one of them at the Bürgeramt, the tax office, the health insurer and the bank.
marital status
der Familienstand
single
ledig
married
verheiratet
divorced
geschieden
widowed
verwitwet
spouse
der Ehepartner
maiden name
der Geburtsname
date of birth
das Geburtsdatum
Practice these words
der Familienstand
Quick notes:
- Ledig means legally unmarried. It's not the same as the English "single" — you're ledig on a form even if you've lived with a partner for fifteen years.
- Geburtsname is literally "birth name" and is the neutral term German forms use where English says "maiden name."
Two Things Worth Knowing
Mein Freund is not just a friend. Mein Freund and meine Freundin mean boyfriend and girlfriend. To talk about an ordinary friend, Germans say ein Freund von mir — "a friend of mine" — and that small change is the whole difference. If you say Ich war mit meiner Freundin im Kino, everyone assumes a date. Ich war mit einer Freundin im Kino doesn't.
Family words carry the du form automatically. Nobody says Sie to a relative, however distant, and nobody says it to children. That makes family the one area where you never have to make the du or Sie decision — which is the subject of a whole page of its own, because everywhere else you do.
Three Mistakes to Avoid
Using Großmutter in conversation. It's correct and it sounds like a paperwork word. Say Oma.
Saying zwei Geschwister when you mean two siblings plus yourself. Ich habe zwei Geschwister means there are three children in the family. Germans count the way English does here, but learners often get it backwards.
Translating "single" as Single on a form. The German noun der Single exists in casual speech, but the form wants ledig.