German family vocabulary
These are the German words about family that come up most often in real speech, ranked by how often they appear in film and TV subtitles. Start with the first ones, such as Vater (father), Mutter (mother), Familie (family), because you will run into them on almost any page about the subject, and the rarer words make more sense once those are familiar.
Words in this list: 30
| # | Word | Pronunciation | Translation | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vater | /ˈfaː.tɐ/ | father | A1 |
| 2 | Mutter | /ˈmʊ.tɐ/ | mother | A1 |
| 3 | Familie | /faˈmiːli̯ə/ | family | A1 |
| 4 | Sohn | /zoːn/ | son | A1 |
| 5 | Bruder | /ˈbʁuː.dɐ/ | brother | A1 |
| 6 | Baby | /ˈbeːbi/ | baby | A1 |
| 7 | Tochter | /ˈtɔx.tɐ/ | daughter | A1 |
| 8 | Schwester | /ˈʃvɛs.tɐ/ | sister | A1 |
| 9 | Papa | /ˈpa.pa/ | dad | A2 |
| 10 | Onkel | /ˈɔŋkl̩/ | uncle | A2 |
| 11 | Partner | /ˈpaʁt.nɐ/ | partner | A2 |
| 12 | Tante | /ˈtantə/ | aunt | A2 |
| 13 | Ehemann | /ˈeːəˌman/ | husband | A2 |
| 14 | Oma | /ˈoːma/ | grandma | B1 |
| 15 | Großvater | /ˈɡʁoːsˌfaːtɐ/ | grandfather | B1 |
| 16 | Großmutter | /ˈɡʁoːsˌmʊtɐ/ | grandmother | B1 |
| 17 | Opa | /ˈoːpa/ | grandpa | B1 |
| 18 | Braut | /bʁaʊ̯t/ | bride | B1 |
| 19 | Cousin | /kuˈzɛ̃ː/ | cousin | B1 |
| 20 | Ehefrau | /ˈeːəˌfʁaʊ̯/ | wife | B2 |
| 21 | Enkel | /ˈɛŋkl̩/ | grandson | B2 |
| 22 | Nichte | /ˈnɪçtə/ | niece | B2 |
| 23 | Neffe | /ˈnɛfə/ | nephew | B2 |
| 24 | Verwandte | /fɛɐ̯ˈvantə/ | relative | C1 |
| 25 | Schwager | /ˈʃvaːɡɐ/ | brother-in-law | C1 |
| 26 | Enkelin | /ˈɛŋkəlɪn/ | granddaughter | C1 |
| 27 | Haushalt | /ˈhaʊ̯shalt/ | household | C1 |
| 28 | Stiefvater | /ˈʃtiːfˌfaːtɐ/ | stepfather | C1 |
| 29 | Schwiegersohn | /ˈʃviːɡɐˌzoːn/ | son-in-law | C1 |
| 30 | Hausfrau | /ˈhaʊ̯sˌfʁaʊ̯/ | housewife | C1 |
How to make these words stick
A list helps you see what matters, but a word only stays after you have met it several times in real sentences and pulled it out of memory yourself. That is how NativeLingo works: it swaps a few of these words into the pages you already read, at your level and in the right form, and then a short daily review asks you to type them back.
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Sources: translations and pronunciation from Wiktionary (wikdict, CC BY-SA 3.0) and ipa-dict (MIT), frequency from OpenSubtitles (FrequencyWords).