Asking about someones family: Family members and relatives

💬 Polite family words often follow one shape: お in front and さん at the end. Compare 母 → お母さん and 父 → お父さん.

💬 お兄さん is said (onīsan), with a long (ī). The plain word for your own older brother is 兄 (ani), so the reading changes completely.

🇯🇵 Shop staff and strangers may call a young woman お姉さん even though they're not related. It's a friendly, flattering way to address her.

💬 Younger siblings just get さん added, with no お in front: 弟さん, 妹さん "someone's younger sister".

🇯🇵 Use 妹さん for someone else's sister and plain 妹 for your own. Adding さん to your own family members sounds odd, like calling yourself by a title.

💬 祖父 is said (sofu). Its partner 祖母 is (sobo), so the two differ by just one sound.

💬 The long (ii) in (ojiisan) matters. Shorten it to おじさん (ojisan) and you've said "uncle" or "middle-aged man" instead.

💬 Keep the long (aa) in (obaasan). Short おばさん (obasan) means "aunt" or "middle-aged woman".

🇯🇵 Kids and strangers also use おじさん for any middle-aged man. A man may even call himself that jokingly.

🇯🇵 おばさん also means any middle-aged woman. Addressed to a stranger it can sting, so many people say お姉さん instead.

🇯🇵 夫 (otto) is the neutral, polite way to mention your own husband. For someone else's husband, say ご主人 "your husband".

🇯🇵 妻 (tsuma) is the standard polite way to mention your own wife. For someone else's wife, use 奥さん "your wife".

🇯🇵 When asking about someone else's children, people usually say お子さん "your child" rather than 子供.

💬 両親 is said (ryōshin). Its first part 両 means "both", the same as in 両手 "both hands".

💬 何人 is (nannin) when counting people. Read as (nanijin), it asks "what nationality", so the context decides the reading.

💬 The small っ in (hitorikko) is a held beat before the (k). Say it as "hitori-k-ko", not "hitoriko".

💬 四人 is said (yonin), not (yonnin) or (shinin). Swap in another number for your family: 三人家族です (sannin kazoku desu) "There are three of us".

🇯🇵 This is a common, safe icebreaker in Japan. People usually answer simply with 〜人家族です and then name the members.

💬 For people, use います, not あります. The count goes right before it: 姉が二人います "I have two older sisters".

💬 兄弟 (kyōdai) means "siblings" in general, sisters included, even though it's written with "older brother" + "younger brother".

💬 は here is said (wa), not (ha). Use います for people and animals; for things you'd switch to あります (arimasu).

💬 住んでいます is how Japanese says "live (somewhere)". The place takes に: 大阪に住んでいます "live in Osaka".

💬 Japanese often has no word for "they" or "my". 両親 by itself already means your own parents.

💬 Adding ご to the front makes 家族 mean someone else's family, politely. You'd never say it about your own.

💬 The question word just sits where the answer would go: どこに becomes 東京に in the reply.

💬 は here is said (wa), not (ha). It sets up who you're asking about, ご家族, before the question.