Immediate Family
Tap any tile to hear the word spoken.
The six core family words sit at the heart of every Tamil household conversation. Notice that Tamil distinguishes elder vs younger for both brother and sister — the form changes with relative age, never with whose family the speaker belongs to.
Immediate family (6)
A note on usage
Children address their parents directly as அப்பா and அம்மா — no “dad / mom” vs “father / mother” formality split. With siblings, you typically use the relationship word as a name itself: a younger brother calls his older brother அண்ணா! (vocative of அண்ணன்), never by first name.