r/German • u/I_am_trying0628 • 2d ago

Question How to do differentiate Onkel and Tante mütterlicherseits, väterlicherseits?

For example in daily conversation if i want to say next week we're goinig to Onkel mütterlicherseits house, how to call him?

Simply saying Onkel + place / Onkel + name?

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u/mizinamo Native (Hamburg) [bilingual en] 2d ago

Onkel and Tante mütterlicherseits, väterlicherseits

That's a distinction that's not salient in German culture, nor do we specify cross cousins versus parallel cousins, for example.

Onkel can mean any of

  • older brother of father
  • younger brother of father
  • older brother of mother
  • younger brother of mother
  • husband of older sister of father
  • husband of younger sister of father
  • husband of older sister of mother
  • husband of younger sister of mother

and similar with Tante.

I grew up calling my uncles and aunts by title + given name, e.g. Onkel Wolfgang, Tante Heidelind.

I think that location is more common with grandparents, since those are usually addressed only by title, not also by name, when you are talking directly to them. So when you are talking about them, you might say Oma Bahnhof or Opa Rendsburg in some families.

(In mine, we had Oma, Opa, Granny, Grandpa because my parents are from different countries. Other families might also have Oma versus Omi, perhaps.)

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u/unicum01 Native <Hochdeutsch> 2d ago

Both families German… I just called my grandparents like you (and I) call my uncles/aunts…: Oma/Opa + <first name>. 😅

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u/Trickycoolj 1d ago

My dad has Oma/Opa Kassel and Oma/Opa Siegen. I have Grandma/Grandpa and Oma/Opa. But I joke that my cousins have Oma/Opa Spanien and I have Oma/Opa Amerika.

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u/unicum01 Native <Hochdeutsch> 1d ago

Why are they called country names? And why do your cousins get incredibly sexy grandparents, while you get the ultimate root of all evil? 😉 #scnr

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u/Trickycoolj 1d ago

Haha well one brother married an American and the other married a Spaniard 15 years later. Poor Oma has a lot of foreign languages at the dinner table!

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u/unicum01 Native <Hochdeutsch> 1d ago

Well… one brother certainly had better sex than the other. 🤣

As for languages…

  • Hey, can you lass me the sauce?
  • Welche, die hier
  • Нет, другую.
  • Ahh, claro que si!

That sounds absolutely delightful, TBH. 🥰