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Hi! I am Studyfin, your friendly Chinese tutor. Today we will learn how to talk about the people we love: our family!
In Mandarin Chinese, the word for family or home is "jiā". When we talk about our family members, we call them "jiārén". The word "rén" means person or people, so "jiārén" literally means "family people"!
Mandarin has special words for older and younger siblings. Your older brother is called "gēge". We repeat the sound to make it friendly and easy to say!
Your younger brother is called "dìdi". Notice how we use different words depending on who is older? This shows respect and helps everyone know exactly who you are talking about in the family!
Let us compare how we talk about brothers. If you have an 11-year-old brother and a 15-year-old brother, and you are 13, you would call the 15-year-old "gēge" and the 11-year-old "dìdi". It is like sorting them by age!
Imagine you are 12 years old. You have two brothers: Leo is 8 years old, and Max is 14 years old. Determine which Mandarin family label applies to Leo and which applies to Max.
- Find your own age first. Your age is 12.
- Look at Max's age. Max is 14 years old, which is older than 12.
- Since Max is older than you, use the label for older brother: "gēge".
- Look at Leo's age. Leo is 8 years old, which is younger than 12.
- Since Leo is younger than you, use the label for younger brother: "dìdi".
