Learn how to introduce members of your family
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| 大家好，我是李殷如。 |
| (Dà jiā hǎo, wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú.) |
| Hi everyone, my name is Yinru Li. In this lesson, we'll talk about family members in Chinese. |
| It is true that with a Chinese family tree, the case of terms are very complicated, especially when it gets to father side, mother side, aunts, uncle, cousins, and all of that ‘cause everybody has their own title. |
| But in this lesson, we’ll be covering the basics, which is the immediate family members. Okay, first, here, I have a sort of family tree. You are here, this is 我 (wǒ) and I have my parents and siblings. |
| So first, “father” in Chinese is 爸爸 (bàba). |
| 爸爸 (bàba) “father” |
| And “mother” in Chinese is 妈妈 (māma). |
| 妈妈 (māma) |
| Okay |
| 爸爸 (bàba) |
| 妈妈 (māma) |
| Now, let’s look at your siblings, okay. |
| The brother who is older than you in Chinese is 哥哥 (gēge). |
| 哥哥 (gēge) |
| 哥哥 (gēge) |
| And the sister who’s older than you is your 姐姐 (jiějie). |
| 姐姐 (jiějie) |
| 姐姐 (jiějie) |
| And the brother who’s younger than you is your 弟弟 (dìdi). |
| 弟弟 (dìdi) |
| And you also have a little sister. She’s your 妹妹 (mèimei). |
| 妹妹 (mèimei) |
| So, your siblings are: |
| 哥哥 (gēge) |
| 姐姐 (jiějie) |
| 弟弟 (dìdi) |
| 妹妹 (mèimei) |
| 哥哥 (gēge) |
| 姐姐 (jiějie) |
| 弟弟 (dìdi) |
| 妹妹 (mèimei) |
| 爸爸 (bàba) |
| 妈妈 (māma) |
| All the family members are made up of words of this repeated syllable and character. While this may sound like a baby talk to you, but this is not the case in Chinese. They’re properly normal and proper. |
| Now, let’s move on to the family member terms as a parent. |
| Now, you are the father now, okay, and your “wife” in Chinese is 老婆 (lǎopo). |
| 老婆 (lǎopo) |
| 老婆 (lǎopo) literally means “old lady.” So your wife is your old lady, even if she’s 20-year-old. |
| 老婆 (lǎopo) |
| 老婆 (lǎopo) “wife” |
| Now, all your male offspring, they’re your 儿子 (érzi), okay. |
| 儿子 (érzi) |
| 儿子 (érzi) |
| And your female offspring are your 女儿 (nǚér). |
| 女儿 (nǚér) “daughter” |
| Okay |
| 儿子 (érzi) |
| 女儿 (nǚér) |
| 老婆 (lǎopo) |
| Now, you are the mother, you’re the queen of the family and your husband is your 老公 (lǎogōng). |
| 老公 (lǎogōng) |
| And the literal meaning of 老公 (lǎogōng) is just like 老婆 (lǎopo), “old man.” So, old man is your husband, 老公 (lǎogōng). |
| Okay |
| And the same with the sons and daughters. |
| “son” 儿子 (érzi) |
| 儿子 (érzi) |
| “daughter” 女儿 (nǚér) |
| 女儿 (nǚér) |
| One thing I do like to point out is that 老公 (lǎogōng) and 老婆 (lǎopo), these two words are relatively informal and casual. So, if you’re in that super formal setting, like you’re in a formal banquet or you’re writing a letter to an official, you should avoid using 老公 (lǎogōng) and 老婆 (lǎopo). In that case, there will be some other terms to refer to your wife and husband. Okay. |
| Now, the family members, one more time. |
| 爸爸 (bàba) |
| 爸爸 (bàba) |
| 妈妈 (māma) |
| 妈妈 (māma) |
| 哥哥 (gēge) |
| 哥哥 (gēge) |
| 姐姐 (jiějie) |
| 姐姐 (jiějie) |
| 弟弟 (dìdi) |
| 弟弟 (dìdi) |
| 妹妹 (mèimei) |
| 妹妹 (mèimei) |
| 老婆 (lǎopo) |
| 老婆 (lǎopo) |
| 老公 (lǎogōng) |
| 老公 (lǎogōng) |
| 儿子 (érzi) |
| 儿子 (érzi) |
| 女儿 (nǚér) |
| 女儿 (nǚér) |
| Perfect! |
| Now, in the next part, you will hear a dialogue. Two co-workers are chatting and one of them is showing a picture on her phone. Now, let’s listen to the dialogue and try to figure out who is this person on the phone. Are you ready? |
| 这是谁？ (Zhè shì shéi?) |
| 这是我老公。 (Zhè shì wǒ lǎogōng.) |
| One more time, a bit slower. |
| 这是谁？ (Zhè shì shéi?) |
| 这是我老公。 (Zhè shì wǒ lǎogōng.) |
| Now, this person on the girl’s phone is her husband. |
| Okay, now, let’s look at the question first. |
| The question is 这是谁？ (Zhè shì shéi?) which literally means “this is who,” but it’s used to ask, “Who is this?” |
| So, the answer goes: |
| 这是我老公。 (Zhè shì wǒ lǎogōng.) |
| 这是 (zhè shì) “this is” |
| 我老公 (wǒ lǎogōng) “my husband” |
| 这是我老公。 (Zhè shì wǒ lǎogōng.) “This is my husband.” |
| Now, let’s imagine, you are showing a picture of your son. |
| In this case, you would say: |
| 这是我儿子。 (Zhè shì wǒ érzi.) |
| 儿子 (érzi) is “son.” |
| 这是我儿子。 (Zhè shì wǒ érzi.) |
| Now, you’re showing a picture of your sister, who’s a few years younger than you, you would say: |
| 这是我妹妹。 (Zhè shì wǒ mèimei.) |
| 这是我妹妹。 (Zhè shì wǒ mèimei.) |
| Okay. |
| Now, you’re showing a picture of your older brother, so… |
| 这是我哥哥。 (Zhè shì wǒ gēge.) |
| 这是我哥哥。 (Zhè shì wǒ gēge.) |
| Now, you’re showing off your beautiful wife on the phone of her picture, so you point at a picture and you say… |
| 这是我老婆。 (Zhè shì wǒ lǎopo.) |
| 这是我老婆。 (Zhè shì wǒ lǎopo.) |
| Now, you can see a pattern, right? |
| 这是我 (Zhè shì wǒ) + [FAMILY MEMBER] is used to say, “This is my…,” used to introduce your family member, okay. |
| 这是 (zhè shì) “this is” |
| 我 (Wǒ), in this case, doesn’t really mean “I” or “me.” It is the shortened form of the possessive pronoun 我的 (wǒ de). But in this case, the 的 (de) is dropped because the following noun is a family member. So, if the following noun is somebody who’s close to you, who has a close relationship with you, you can drop the 的 (de) in the possessive pronoun. |
| So, you can say: |
| 这是我老公。 (Zhè shì wǒ lǎogōng.) |
| But 这是我的老公 (zhè shì wǒ de lǎogōng) is also correct, so it’s correct to use this. |
| The only difference is if you drop the 的 (de), it sounds more colloquial, more casual, okay? |
| So, 这是我。。。 (zhè shì wǒ…) |
| 这是我老公。 (Zhè shì wǒ lǎogōng.) |
| 这是我儿子。 (Zhè shì wǒ érzi.) |
| 这是我妹妹。 (Zhè shì wǒ mèimei.) |
| 这是我哥哥。 (Zhè shì wǒ gēge.) |
| 这是我老婆。 (Zhè shì wǒ lǎopo.) |
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