Family in Esperanto: mother, father and all relatives

"Family" in Esperanto is familio, "mother" is patrino, "father" is patro and "parents" is gepatroj. Most relatives follow one pattern: the root names a man (frato "brother"), the suffix -in- makes it female (fratino "sister"), and the prefix ge- names both together (gefratoj "brothers and sisters"). Pronunciation guides split words into syllables, with the stressed syllable in capitals.

#How family words are built

These are ordinary prefixes and suffixes; see word building for the general rules.

#Relatives by generation

#Grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts

ReVo defines onklo as a brother or brother-in-law (bofrato) of a parent.

#Your own generation

Esperanto has no separate words for "older" or "younger" siblings. PMEG says to add the adjective when needed: pli aĝa fratino "older sister", malpli aĝa frato "younger brother".

#Children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces

Infano is neutral and has two meanings in ReVo: a young person up to about 12, and a person's child of any age. Nevo is the child of your brother or sister, and differs by one letter from nepo "grandson".

#Other words for people in a family

To marry is edziĝi (ReVo: to become a husband, or a spouse), edziniĝi (to become a wife) and geedziĝi (to become a married couple).

#In-laws: the prefix bo-

Bo- marks a relative by marriage. It appears mainly in three roots and their -in- forms: bopatro, bofilo and bofrato.

PMEG says bofrato covers your spouse's brother, your sibling's husband and the husband of your spouse's sister. For other relatives by marriage (uncle, cousin, nephew) speakers normally use the simple words without bo-.

#Step- and half-relatives: vic- and duon-

PMEG recommends vic- for relatives created by a parent's remarriage, and duon- only for true half-relatives who share one parent.

#Great-grandparents and ancestors: pra-

Pra- moves a relative one generation further away, back in time or forward. Repeat it once for each extra generation.

#Pet names: -ĉj- and -nj-

The suffix -ĉj- makes affectionate male names and -nj- female ones. You keep the first few letters of the root and cut the rest: paĉjo comes from patro, panjo from patrino, onjo from onklino.

The same endings make pet names from first names: Johano → Joĉjo, Mario → Manjo.

#Offspring: the suffix -id-

The suffix -id- means offspring: hundo "dog" → hundido "puppy". With people, PMEG says it shows a child or descendant of any age and goes mostly with titles and historic names: reĝido "child of a king". For ordinary families you say filo, filino or infano. The noun idaro means all the descendants of one person.

#Male roots, female forms and neutral words

PMEG lists avo, edzo, fianĉo, filo, frato, kuzo, nepo, nevo, onklo, patro and vidvo as male roots, so the female word needs -in-. The family words infano, parenco, familiano and orfo are neutral. Traditionally Esperanto has no way to name a parent, sibling or spouse without stating the person's sex. PMEG describes three solutions, none of them part of the official language:

• Singular ge-words: gepatro, gefrato, geedzo. PMEG (2024) says this use has grown over the last 20 to 30 years; ReVo marks singular gepatro as rare and notes that not all speakers accept it.
• New roots such as parento for "parent" and spozo for "spouse"; ReVo marks both as rare.
• Giving patro or edzo a neutral meaning, which PMEG warns can cause serious misunderstandings.

#Asking about family

Typical answers:

PMEG notes that gefratoj also works when you do not know whether the person has brothers, sisters or both. Watch the endings: havas gefratojn takes plural -j and the accusative -n. More question words are on the questions and negation page.

#A short description of a family

In some families Esperanto is the language of the home; read about native speakers of Esperanto.

#Common questions

#How do you say "mother" in Esperanto?

Patrino, which is patro "father" plus -in- "female". Children often say panjo ("mum"), and "dad" is paĉjo.

#How do you say "family" and "relatives" in Esperanto?

The family is familio, a family member is familiano and a relative is parenco.

#How do you say "parents" in Esperanto?

Gepatroj: the root patro with ge- "both sexes". A single parent is patro (father) or patrino (mother).

#How do you say "mother-in-law" and "brother-in-law"?

Bopatrino and bofrato. "Parents-in-law" is bogepatroj.

#Is there a gender-neutral word for "parent" or "sibling"?

Not in the traditional language. Some speakers use singular gepatro and gefrato, others propose new roots such as parento; PMEG treats these as unofficial.

#Sources

• PMEG: Parencoj kaj familianoj
• PMEG: Seksa signifo de O-vortoj
• PMEG: IN, GE, BO, PRA
• PMEG: ID, ĈJ, NJ
• PMEG: Radikoj uzataj prefiksece (DUON, VIC)
• ReVo: patro, patrino, gepatroj, frato, filo, avo
• ReVo: onklo, kuzo, nevo, nepo
• ReVo: edzo, edziĝi, geedzoj, fianĉo, vidvo
• ReVo: infano, familio, parenco, ĝemelo, orfo, -id-