You will name your close family and pick the right word for older siblings, aunts, uncles and grandparents.
The idea
Turkish names relatives by side and by age. Anne and baba are your parents, abla is an older sister, ağabey or abi an older brother, and kardeş a younger sibling. On the mother's side you say anneanne, dayı and teyze; on the father's side babaanne, amca and hala. Only dede (grandfather) is the same on both sides.
| Relative | Mother's side | Father's side |
|---|---|---|
| Büyükanne | anneanne | babaanne |
| Büyükbaba | dede | dede |
| Anne veya babanın erkek kardeşi | dayı | amca |
| Anne veya babanın kız kardeşi | teyze | hala |
Examples
- Babam akşam eve geliyor.My father comes home in the evening.
- Dedem bahçede oturuyor.My grandfather is sitting in the garden.
- Ablam üniversitede okuyor.My older sister studies at the university.Abla already says that she is older. A younger sister is kız kardeşim.
- Annem ve teyzem kardeş.My mother and my aunt are sisters.Here kardeş means siblings of each other. It does not say sister or brother; that comes from teyze, your mother's sister.
- kardeşlerimmy siblingskardeşler-ler / -lar: the plural suffixim-im / -ım / -um / -üm / -m: my
- çocuklarımızour childrençocuklar-ler / -lar: the plural suffixımız-imiz / -ımız / -umuz / -ümüz: our
- amcammy uncle (my father's brother)Amca is only your father's brother. Your mother's brother has his own word, dayı. The ending -m means my.
- dayımmy uncle (my mother's brother)Dayı ends in the vowel ı, so the ending is only -m: dayım, not dayıım.
- Halam Bursa'da yaşıyor.My father's sister lives in Bursa.
Read-aloud uses a synthetic Turkish voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.
No Turkish device voice is available. You can still read the text.
Watch out
English has one word for uncle and one for aunt, Turkish has two of each, so amca for your mother's brother is wrong: he is dayı. And kardeş alone does not tell you the gender; add kız or erkek when it matters.
Try it yourself
Write what you call him: my mother's brother.
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dayım
dayım: your mother's brother is dayı, not amca; after the vowel ı the ending for my is just -m.
Write what you call her: my father's sister.
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halam
halam: your father's sister is hala, and teyze is only your mother's sister; hala ends in a vowel, so only -m is added.
Write what you call her: my mother's mother (my grandmother).
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anneannem
anneannem: anne + anne makes the mother's mother; the father's mother is babaanne, so the first part names the side.
Write what you call him: my older brother. Two words are right; one is enough.
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ağabeyim / abim
ağabeyim or abim: both words mean older brother; ağabey ends in a consonant and takes -im, abi ends in a vowel and takes only -m.
Practice round
Answer questions, then rebuild Turkish sentences and words where available. We keep your score.
Write what you call him: my mother's brother.
Write what you call her: my father's sister.
Write what you call her: my mother's mother (my grandmother).
Write what you call him: my older brother. Two words are right; one is enough.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the parts in order to build this word: my siblings
Tap the parts in order to build this word: our children
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Draw your family tree and write the Turkish word under each person. Mark which side each relative is on.