Family plays an important role in Russian culture, and learning how to talk about relatives is a useful step toward mastering the language. While Russian has familiar words for family members like parents, siblings, and grandparents, its grammatical rules can make describing family relationships a little more challenging than in English.
In this article, we'll explore essential Russian family vocabulary and introduce the grammar you need to talk about your loved ones naturally and confidently.
| 👨👩👦👦 Relative | 🤔 In Russian | 🔠 Romanised form | 🔊 How to pronounce |
|---|---|---|---|
| family | семья | sem'ya | |
| relatives | родственники | rodstvenniki | |
| Grandmother | бабушка | babushka | |
| Grandfather | дедушка | dedushka | |
| parents | родители | roditeli | |
| Mother Mum Wife | Мать Мама Жена | mat' mama zhena | |
| Father Dad Husband | отец папа муж | otets papa muzh | |
| Brother Son Grandson | Брат Сын Внук | brat syn vnuk | |
| Sister Daughter Granddaughter | Сестра Дочь Внучка | sestra doch' vnuchka | |
| Child Children | Ребенок Дети | rebenok deti | |
| Uncle | дядя | dyadya | |
| Aunt | тетя | tetya | |
| Nephew | племянник | plemyannik | |
| Niece | племянница | plemyannitsa | |
| male cousin female cousin | двоюродный брат двоюродная сестра | dvoyurodnyy brat dvoyurodnaya sestra |
How to Say 'Family' in Russian
The first word in our table above is семья (sem'ya), which means 'family' in Russian. Family relationships are highly valued in Russian culture, with holidays and special occasions often bringing relatives together to share meals and celebrate. Much like in your own culture, these gatherings can include everyone from parents and siblings to grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Pronouncing семья
IPA pronunciation
[sʲɪmˈja]
Syllables
1. sem
2. ya
Syllable stress
on the second syllable (ya)
Some language learners fear the Cyrillic alphabet because its letters don't look much like the ones we're familiar with. And the ones that do resemble familiar letters make different sounds (like the 'N' in 'nana', for example). But we needn't fear them, only learn them. For семья, this is the letter-by-letter breakdown.
To pronounce it correctly, raise the middle of your tongue to your mouth's roof.
Mistakes to Avoid When Pronouncing семья
In this word, the 'M' makes a sound rather like a low hum, not a syllable-ending hard sound, like in 'boom' and 'dam'. In fact, rhyming the Russian 'sem' with the English 'hem' is a great mnemonic to master this syllable's sound.
Many beginners incorrectly interpret Я as a particle and, thus, place the syllable stress on the first part of the word: SEM-ya. A Russian speaker would probably understand you, but they would definitely know you're not a native Russian speaker. Pronounce it sem-YA, instead.
🔠 Vasha sem'ya zhyviot v Moskve?
📖 Does your family live in Moscow?
🔠 Moya sem'ya ochen' bol'shaya.
📖 My family is very large.
🔠 Pozhaluysta, predstav'te svoyu sem'yu.
📖 Please introduce your family.
In some cases, Я is pronounced 'ah'. However, in семья, Я follows a consonant, so it needs its 'y'-sound to function as a glide - a link between the consonant and 'ah'-sound. These sample sentences give you a chance to practise pronouncing 'family' in Russian.
Immediate Family Members in Russian
Above, you sampled groups of terms related to family, with no distinction between immediate and extended relationships. Of course, you know family structures well enough to understand an aunt is 'extended' while a sibling is 'immediate'. Here, we distinguish between them so you can focus on one group, then the other.
Romanisation or transliteration, the practice of writing other languages' words in Latin script, has no standard, universal system in Russia. Official transliterations favour phonetic approximations. Academic systems rely on reversibility - conversion from and back into Russian.
Your textbooks may use a different system, perhaps one of the academic versions. In this article, we rely on the official version that's typically used for passports and other documents that would be read in English-speaking countries1. With that clear, we present our list of immediate family members.
| 📖 English | ✅ Russian | 🔠 Romanisation | 😀 IPA Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| parents | родители | roditeli | [rɔˈditɛli] |
| mother | Мать | mat' | [matʲ] |
| wife | Жена | zhena | [ʐɨˈna] |
| father | отец | otets | [oˈtɛt͡s] |
| husband | муж | muzh | /muʂ/ |
| child | Ребенок | rebenok | [rʲɪˈbʲɵnək] |
| children | Дети | deti | /ˈdʲetʲɪ/ |
| son | Сын | syn | /sɨn/ |
| brother | Брат | brat | /brat/ |
| daughter | Дочь | doch' | [dot͡ɕ] |
| sister | Сестра | sestra | [sʲɪˈstra] |
Extended Family Members in Russian
Some families have so many members that they must count into the hundreds. No need to worry; we won't present you with hundreds of terms for relatives to master. Still, it's still a good idea to learn how to count that high in Russian. Maybe after this short lesson on extended family terms?
| 📖 English name | ✅ In Russian | 🔠 Romanised | 😀 IPA pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| grandmother | бабушка | babushka | [ˈbabʊʂkə] |
| grandfather | дедушка | dedushka | dʲˈe.d.uʃka |
| grandson | Внук | vnuk | [vnuk] |
| granddaughter | Внучка | vnuchka | [ˈvnut͡ɕkə] |
| aunt | тетя | tetya | [ˈtʲɵtʲə] |
| uncle | дядя | dyadya | [ˈdʲædʲə] |
| niece | племянница | plemyannitsa | [plʲɪˈmʲænʲːɪt͡sə] |
| nephew | племянник | plemyannik | [plʲɪˈmʲænʲːɪk] |
Many languages have a word to represent a grandparental unit; in English, we simply say 'grandparents'. In Russian, people refer to grandparents as дедушка и бабушка (dedushka i babushka - 'grandfather and grandmother').
Having a general term for our parents' parents simplifies language a bit, but sometimes, English is a bit too simple. For instance, we do not distinguish between male and female cousins, like Russian speakers do. For them, a male cousin is двоюродный брат (dvoyurodnyy brat) and a female cousin is двоюродная сестра (dvoyurodnaya sestra).
Claiming Your Family Members in Russian: "My Mother", "My Brother", etc.
Grammatical cases rank among the stickiest parts of Russian grammar. Genitive, possessive, and other cases modify practically every word in a sentence. You got a sampling of such a modification in the sample sentence above, "Please introduce your family", which features "sem'yu" instead of "sem'ya".
You should be familiar with the possessive (genitive) case. You don't say "This is me pencil"; you say, "This is my pencil." The determiner changes form (but the noun does not, as English does not have grammatical gender).
Unlike in English, nouns in Russian have a gender.
All female relatives are grammatically feminine.
All male relatives are grammatically masculine.
Grammatical gendering affects the determiner form you must use to describe your family.
This article doesn't dive into Russian grammar any deeper than that. Rather, we skim the surface to point out how to declare family members in the possessive case.
| 🕵️♀️ Determiner | 📖 What it represents | 🔎 Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| мой | masculine possessive form | это мой брат. eto moy brat. This is my brother. |
| моя | feminine possessive form | Это моя сестра. Eto moya sestra. That is my sister. |
| моё | neuter possessive form | Моё семья живёт в Москве. Moyo sem'ya zhivot v Moskve. My family lives in Moscow. |
| мои | plural possessive form | это мои двоюродные братья. eto moi dvoyurodnye brat'ya. These are my cousins. |
By the way, did you know that, in Russian, all the months are grammatically masculine2? Discover more facts about days, months, and calendar vocabulary to aid your studies.
Introducing Your Family in Russian
The whole point of learning Russian vocabulary is to use it, right? That's what we do here. First, we set up a cheat card, and then, we exercise our new knowledge.
Start with
- This is (это - eto)
- I have (у меня - u menya)
- Those are (это - eto)
Determiner
- мой (masculine)
- моя (feminine)
- моё (neuter)
- мои (plural)
Family members
Distinguish between masculine, feminine, and plural.
That is the basic formula. Decide who you'd like to introduce - a male or female relative, or a group of them. Then, it's a simple matter of plugging in a starting phrase and correct determiner. Are you ready to try?
How did you do? Did you notice that 'cousins' defaulted to the male form? Unlike the combined 'grandmother and grandfather' Russians use to describe grandparents, cousins will always be male unless you specify that they're female. And then, the entire group must be female; if so much as one is male, the entire group is designated as such.
Talking About Your Brother And Sister in Russian
Well, not just one brother or sister; all your siblings, other children in the family, and if they're older or younger than you are. If you're a parent, you'll want to describe sons and daughters with equal fervour.
By the way, when introducing your family members - or when you meet your Russian friends' family members, you'll naturally want to know the right way to say hello. And goodbye, when you take your leave.
For all of these functions, using the correct grammatical gender is key; make note of such as we go through these examples. But first, the rule exceptions.
The Russian language has no equivalent to 'grandparents'. Say "grandmother and grandfather".
The Russian language has no equivalent to 'siblings'. Say "brothers and sisters", instead.
The term 'cousins' defaults to the grammatically masculine form.
We needn't worry about 'children' (Дети - deti) because it's already in plural form but, for the record, that noun is grammatically masculine. With all these exceptions sorted, we can talk about groups of relatives.
Brothers and Sisters
As we have no word for siblings in Russian, we must talk about brothers and sisters separately.
🔠 Eto moya sestra. Eto moi sestry.
📖 This is my sister. These are my sisters.
🔠 Eto moy brat. Eto moi brat'ya.
📖 This is my brother. These are my brothers.
🔠 U menya dve sestry i odin brat.
📖 I have two sisters and one brother.
🔠 U menya net sestyor, tol'ko brat'ya.
📖 I have no sisters, only brothers.
In these examples, the determiner and noun endings change according to the number of brothers or sisters you're introducing. In all cases, you're using the possessive (genitive) determiner, gendered to the sibling in question.
Older and Younger
You may have to clarify whether the brother you're introducing is younger or older than you. In these cases, the rules for gendering and plural forms remain consistent. cols
For brothers
- Older: Это мой старший брат. Eto moy starshiy brat.
- Younger: Это мой младший брат. Eto moy mladshiy brat.
- Older: Это мои старшие братья. Eto moi starshiye brat'ya.
- Younger: Это мои младшие братья. Eto moi mladshiye brat'ya.
For sisters
- Older: Это моя старшая сестра. Eto moya starshaya sestra.
- Younger: Это моя младшая сестра. Eto moya mladshaya sestra.
- Older: Это мои старшие сестры. Eto moi starshiye sestry.
- Younger: Это мои младшие сестры. Eto moi mladshiye sestry.
Sons and Daughters
Around the world, parents gush about their children: how many of each gender they have, often describing them from oldest to youngest. In Russia, this is how parents do that.
| 👶 In English | 📖 In Russian | 🔠 Romanised form |
|---|---|---|
| This is my son. | Это мой сын. | Eto moy syn. |
| These are my sons. | Это мои сыновья. | Eto moi synov'ya. |
| These are my children. | Это мои дети. | Eto moi deti. |
| These are my daughters. | Это мои дочери. | Eto moi docheri. |
| This is my daughter. | Это моя дочь. | Eto moya doch'. |
| I have three children. | Y меня трое детей. | U menya troye detey. |
| I have three daughters. | Y меня три дочери. | U menya tri docheri. |
| I have two sons. | Y меня два сына. | U menya dva syna. |
| This is my oldest child. | Это мой старший ребенок. | Eto moy starshiy rebenok. |
| This is my youngest child. | Это мой младший ребенок. | Eto moy mladshiy rebenok. |
References
- Elon. “Transliteration and Romanization.” Elon.Io, 2026, elon.io/grammar/russian/writing-system/transliteration. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
- Go Learn Russian. “Months and Seasons in Russian | Learn Russian Online.” Learn Russian Online | Learn Russian Online, 23 Feb. 2022, golearnrussian.com/months-and-seasons-in-russian/. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
Summarise with AI:
Did you like this article? Leave a rating!
Loading...