Pinyin Sheets

Chinese Family Words for Kids: 爸爸, 妈妈 and More with Pinyin

Published 2026-10-06 · Updated 2026-10-06

Chinese Family Words for Kids

爸爸 and 妈妈 are often the very first Chinese words a child can read. They're short, they repeat, and they name the two people the child sees every day. Family words are also where heritage-learner children get their first real payoff, because they can call relatives by the right name at the next family dinner.

This guide gives you a core list of family words with characters, pinyin and meanings. It explains the doubled pattern that so many of them share, flags the neutral tone that trips up beginners, and ends with a family-tree activity you can print.

Family words are a standard early target

Family vocabulary is not just a parent favourite. The Victorian Curriculum in Australia, for students learning Chinese as a second language, describes students at Level 2 (around the first years of school) as matching characters to the meanings and sounds of familiar words, including numbers, colours and family members such as 爸爸 and 妈妈. At the same level it describes students using the four tones, "but not always with accuracy" (VCAA PDF).

That second part is reassuring. A six-year-old who says 妈妈 with not-quite-right tones is right on track.

The core list

The pinyin and meanings below are our own, written for beginners. Families differ in what they call relatives, so treat this as a starting point and add the names your family actually uses.

Immediate family

Characters Pinyin Meaning
爸爸 bàba dad
妈妈 māma mum
哥哥 gēge older brother
姐姐 jiějie older sister
弟弟 dìdi younger brother
妹妹 mèimei younger sister
我 wǒ I, me
家 jiā home, family

Grandparents

Chinese uses different words for grandparents on the father's side and the mother's side.

Characters Pinyin Meaning
爷爷 yéye grandpa (father's father)
奶奶 nǎinai grandma (father's mother)
外公 wàigōng grandpa (mother's father)
外婆 wàipó grandma (mother's mother)

Some families say 姥爷 (lǎoye) and 姥姥 (lǎolao) for the mother's parents instead. Use whichever your child will actually hear.

Useful extras

Characters Pinyin Meaning
叔叔 shūshu uncle (also a polite word for a man of a parent's age)
阿姨 āyí aunt (also a polite word for a woman of a parent's age)
宝宝 bǎobao baby
一家人 yì jiā rén the whole family (spoken tone of 一 shown)

There are more precise words for aunts, uncles and cousins, but they vary a lot between families and regions. Start with the list above, then add your own relatives one at a time.

Why so many family words repeat

Notice how many of these words are a single syllable said twice: 爸爸, 妈妈, 哥哥, 姐姐, 弟弟, 妹妹, 爷爷, 奶奶. The national pinyin orthography standard, GB/T 16159, includes māma (妈妈) among its examples of words written as a single unit, and it also says reduplicated single-syllable words are written joined (GB/T 16159). So it's bàba, not bà ba.

For children this repetition is a gift. Once they can write 哥, they can write 哥哥. A family worksheet gives a lot of writing practice from only a few distinct characters.

The neutral tone: the main thing to teach

Look at the pinyin again: bàba, māma, gēge, jiějie. The second syllable has no tone mark. GB/T 16159 says neutral-tone syllables are written without a tone mark (GB/T 16159). In speech the second syllable is short and light.

Two common mistakes:

  1. Adding a tone to the second syllable. Children taught "every syllable has a tone" often write mā mā or say both syllables with equal weight. Explain that the second one is a "light" syllable.
  2. Saying the first syllable flat. The first syllable keeps its full tone: 爸 is a falling fourth tone, 妈 is high and level. Exaggerate the first syllable and keep the second one quick.

A sandhi detail in 奶奶 and 姐姐

奶奶 and 姐姐 start with a third tone. Before a neutral tone, a third tone is usually said low, without its rising end (Putonghua phonetics summary). Don't try to make young children produce a full dipping third tone here. A low, relaxed nǎi followed by a light nai sounds natural. Our post on tone change rules explains the third tone in more detail.

Activities that work

Family tree (all ages)

  • Draw a simple tree with photos or drawings of real relatives.
  • Under each picture write the Chinese word, with pinyin above.
  • Ask "这是谁？" (zhè shì shéi? "who is this?") and have your child answer with the family word.

Who's older? (ages 5+)

  • Line up siblings and cousins by age.
  • Practise 哥哥/弟弟 and 姐姐/妹妹: the word depends on whether the person is older or younger than the speaker.

Phone call practice (heritage learners)

  • Before a video call, practise the greeting for that relative: 奶奶好！(nǎinai hǎo!), 外公好！(wàigōng hǎo!).
  • Afterwards, write the relative's word three times on a tracing sheet.

Reading game

  • Put word cards face down. Turn one over, read it, and point to that person in a family photo.

How family words fit into early writing

Doubled words let children repeat a character while it's still fresh, which makes them good early writing practice. Some family characters, such as 家 and 我, have quite a few strokes, so it's fine to read them long before your child writes them. Our list of starter Chinese characters for kids suggests simpler characters to write first.

Make the worksheet

Type your family's words into the pinyin worksheet generator, for example 爸爸 妈妈 哥哥 姐姐 爷爷 奶奶 外公 外婆. Use full mode for a reading sheet with pinyin over each character, tracing mode for handwriting, and blank mode for a dictation check. Everything prints on A4 with tianzige squares.

Sources

Sources