About 一家人

Every term starts as a draft, and elders in our family check it: the characters, the tones and what people really say at home. They are working through the list now, and we update terms as their answers come in.

The site isn't open to public submissions. If your family says something differently, that's expected (see below).

There's no single official list. What you call a relative depends on:

• Where your family is from. We use Hong Kong Cantonese as the main form. Families from Guangzhou, Taishan or overseas communities often use other words, which we list as “Also heard”.
• To their face or about them. Many relatives have one word you say to them and another you use when you mention them, like 爸爸 and 老豆.
• Birth order. Many families number aunts and uncles: 大伯 for the eldest, 二叔 for the second, 細姨 for the youngest.
• Family habit. Some households simply prefer one word, and it sticks for generations.

If your family says it another way, they're not wrong. Use what your elders use.

Each term shows Jyutping, the standard way to write Cantonese sounds. The number after each syllable is its tone, from 1 to 6. Tones change the meaning: 媽媽 (maa4 maa1, mother) and 嫲嫲 (maa4 maa4, father's mother) sound alike except for one tone.

A tone written like je4-2 is said with a changed tone: written as tone 4, said as tone 2. This happens a lot in family terms.

“Say it like” is a rough English spelling for beginners. It doesn't show tones, so listen to the audio too.

For now, audio uses a computer voice: your device's own Cantonese voice when it has one. Computer voices sometimes get family tones wrong, so trust your elders over the voice.

The photos and fonts on this site are free to use under open licences, and each one is credited. See every credit. The photos show the world these words come from. They aren't of our own family.

What you type is worked out in your browser and never sent anywhere. There are no accounts and no ads.