Short answer: German makes most relatives by joining words: Groß (grand) + Mutter = die Großmutter; Schwieger- makes in-laws, Stief- step-relatives. The last part decides the gender. Learn each noun with der, die or das and its plural, because plurals change: der Bruder, die Brüder.
Word builder · choose two parts
Groß+Mutter=
The article always comes from the last part: der Vater → der Großvater. Black der, red die.
Nouns
The core family, with plurals
A noun is a naming word. German nouns always start with a capital letter and have a gender (der, die, das). Plurals are unpredictable, so learn them as a pair; many add an umlaut (two dots: a → ä). See der, die, das.
Singular
Plural
Meaning
FAH-tuh
die Väter
father
MOO-tuh
die Mütter
mother
EL-tun
(plural only)
parents
ZOHN
die Söhne
son
TOKH-tuh
die Töchter
daughter
KINT
die Kinder
child
BROO-duh
die Brüder
brother
SHVES-tuh
die Schwestern
sister
ON-kul
die Onkel
uncle
TAHN-tuh
die Tanten
aunt
koo-ZANG
die Cousins
cousin (male)
koo-ZEE-nuh
die Cousinen
cousin (female)
Die Geschwister (siblings) has no common singular: German simply says mein Bruder or meine Schwester.
Possessives
Mein or meine?
A possessive shows who something belongs to. Mein (my) takes an ending that matches the noun: nothing for der and das words, -e for die words and all plurals. The same goes for dein, sein, ihr.
meinder and das words
meinedie words
meineall plurals
Possession
Annas Bruder: saying whose
With names, German adds -s but no apostrophe: Annas Bruder. In speech, von (of) is very common: der Bruder von Anna.
DasthatistisAnnasAnna’sBruder.brother
das ist AH-nahs BROO-duh“That’s Anna’s brother.”Why:Names add -s with no apostrophe.
DasthatistisdertheBruderbrothervonofAnna.Anna
das ist dair BROO-duh fon AH-nah“That’s Anna’s brother.”Why:Von is the everyday spoken way.
yah, ZEE-bun! veer zint EYE-nuh GROH-suh fah-MEE-lee-uh · “Yes, seven! We’re a big family.”
Family occasions
Herzlichen Glückwunsch! Alles Gute!
Birthdays, weddings and new babies all have fixed German wishes. Germans traditionally don’t wish happy birthday before the day itself: it is thought to bring bad luck.