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Family members in Dutch

The Dutch word for family is de familie (the wider relatives) or het gezin (the household you live in — parents and children). That distinction has no clean English equivalent and is worth learning first: gezin is your immediate family unit, familie is everyone you're related to.

Het gezin or de familie: what is the difference?

English “family” covers two ideas that Dutch keeps apart. Het gezin (plural de gezinnen) is the household unit: parents and the children who live with them, or a single parent with children. De familie (plural de families) is the wider circle of relatives — grandparents, aunts, cousins, in-laws. A couple without children is usually not called a gezin.

A quick test: if you could list everyone at your breakfast table, that is your gezin; if you need a family tree, it is your familie. Note also that familie is a false friend in one direction: Is zij familie van je? asks whether she is related to you, not whether she belongs to your household. The same distinction applies in Belgium.

The nuclear family

Almost every family word is a de-word. The exceptions are compounds of kind and lid (het kind, het kleinkind, het familielid) plus het gezin itself. Plurals here are mostly -s or -en — see Dutch plurals for the pattern.

Note the plural of kind is the irregular kinderen (one of a small -eren group), and that words ending in a vowel take an apostrophe before the plural -s: mama's, baby's. The word broers en zussen is the everyday way to say “siblings.”

The extended family

Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. A nice feature of Dutch: the same word neef covers both “nephew” and “male cousin,” and nicht covers both “niece” and “female cousin.” Context tells you which.

Nicknames and affectionate forms

Dutch expresses affection mainly through the diminutive (-je, -tje), explained in Dutch diminutives. Family words are a prime example, and all diminutives are het-words.

So a brother talking to his sister will typically just say zus or, affectionately, zussie; talking about her, he says mijn (kleine) zusje if she is younger. The old form zuster still means sister in formal writing, but in speech it now mostly means a nun or a nurse.

In-laws: the schoon- family

Dutch builds “in-law” relationships with the prefix schoon- (literally “clean”, but here meaning “by marriage”). The main exception is zwager (brother-in-law), which has its own word.

Step-family and partners

Step-relations use the prefix stief-, and half-siblings use half-. Modern Dutch also has a rich set of partner words, since partner and cohabitation are entirely normal and often preferred to marriage vocabulary.

A useful nuance: mijn vriend can mean either “my (male) friend” or “my boyfriend” — context and tone decide, and the diminutive vriendje leans toward “boyfriend.” For romantic partners, many couples simply say mijn partner or mijn vriend(in).

Talking about your family

Family talk leans heavily on possessives (mijn, jouw, zijn, haar, ons/onze) — the full set is in Dutch pronouns. Here is a short model exchange:

Note samenwonen (to live together, cohabit) — a hugely common life stage in Dutch culture, often long-term without marriage. And oudere/jongere (older/younger) are just the comparative forms of oud and jong.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between het gezin and de familie?

Het gezin is the household: parents and the children living with them. De familie is all your relatives, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and in-laws.

How do you say family in Dutch?

Use de familie for relatives in general and het gezin for your immediate household. “My family” at home is mijn gezin; the whole clan is mijn familie.

What nickname would a brother use for his sister in Dutch?

Usually zus (sis) or the affectionate zussie. A younger sister is zusje, as in mijn kleine zusje. A sister calls her brother broer, broertje if he is younger.

How do you say siblings in Dutch?

Everyday Dutch says broers en zussen (brothers and sisters): Heb je broers of zussen? The formal word is broers en zusters; there is no common single-word equivalent of “sibling”.

How do you say cousin in Dutch?

A male cousin is de neef and a female cousin is de nicht. The same words also mean nephew and niece, so context tells you which relationship is meant.

Is kind a de or het word?

Kind is a het-word: het kind. Its plural is irregular, de kinderen, and compounds follow suit: het kleinkind, het stiefkind.