Family and relatives

There is no way to say brother in Mandarin without saying which one.

哥哥 (gē ge) is an older brother. 弟弟 (dì di) is a younger brother. The generic word 兄弟 (xiōng dì) exists but means brothers collectively, or mates, and cannot be used for one unspecified sibling.

The same holds for sisters, and it extends outwards through the whole family: aunts, uncles and cousins are distinguished by which side of the family they belong to and whether they are older or younger than your parent. The full system runs to well over thirty terms, and native speakers genuinely use them.

You do not need that system yet. You do need to know that when someone asks about your siblings, I have a brother is not an available answer.

The written parent and the spoken one

父亲 (fù qīn) and 母亲 (mǔ qīn) are father and mother. 爸爸 (bà ba) and 妈妈 (mā ma) are dad and mum.

The split is sharper than in English. 父亲 belongs to forms, formal writing and speeches. 爸爸 is what anyone actually says, at any age, including in serious conversation about their father. Using 父亲 in ordinary speech sounds like reading from a document.

Notice that the everyday pair are both reduplicated with a neutral tone on the second syllable. That doubling is a marker of family words and intimacy generally, and it runs through 哥哥, 弟弟, 姐姐 and 妹妹 as well.

家 is bigger than family

家 (jiā) is a family, a home, and a household. 回家 (huí jiā) is to go home.

It is also a suffix meaning an expert or a professional, and a measure word for businesses. One 家 restaurant, one 家 company. The thread running through all of these is a unit of people under one roof, and Chinese has been happy to extend that metaphor a long way.

先生 and 小姐

先生 (xiān sheng) is Mr, and also husband. 太太 (tài tai) is Mrs, and also wife. 小姐 (xiǎo jiě) is Miss, and it is worth a warning: in mainland China it has acquired a second, unflattering meaning in some contexts, and 女士 is the safer formal address.