Hierarchy of family members

This post shows the hierarchy of family members and how to address them.  Taken from this wiki page.

	generic	paternal	maternal	northern	southern	male	female
great grandfather	Ông cố	Ông cố nội	Ông cố ngoại
great grandmother	Bà cố	Bà cố nội	Bà cố ngoại
grandfather	Ông	Ông nội	Ông ngoại
grandmother	Bà	Bà nội	Bà ngoại
great uncle	Ông
great aunt	Bà
father	Cha			Bố	Ba
mother				Mẹ	Má
children	Con cái					Con trai	Con gái
uncle/older		Bác	Bác			Bác trai/ Bác nam	Bác gái/ Bác nữ (rarely used)
uncle/younger		Chú	Cậu
uncle in-laws		Bác/Chú	Dượng
aunt/older		Bác	Bác
aunt/younger		Cô	Dì
aunt in-laws		Bác/Thím	Mợ
sibling/oldest				Anh/Chị cả
sibling/older						Anh	Chị
sibling/younger	Em					Em trai	Em gái
sibling/youngest	út			(Em trai/gái) út

Chào học trò
(Hello students)

Today, I’m going to add a supplement to the first lesson.

In this section, you will learn to address people according to family sides.

For example, if you are on the paternal side like Trâm Anh, Nhạc, and Stella, you would address the uncle as Chú Chín instead of Cậu Chín like the maternal side.

For aunties, on the paternal side you would say Cô Ba instead of Dì Ba like the maternal side. It’s kinda confusing but I think you will understand when you start to addressing them in Vietnamese.

The same goes for grandparents. That’s why Trâm Anh, Nhạc & Stella call Bà Ngoại as Bà Nội because they’re both on the paternal side.

Now, as you got all that, you need to learn Vietnamese numbers in order to understand why you call Dì 3.

In Vietnamese culture, most families tend to call the siblings not by name but by numbers. For the oldest, we call Chị Hai (for sister) Anh Hai (for brother) even though they are the first borns.

This is the way of the southerners. But in northern VN, the oldest are called Anh Cả (oldest brother), or chị Cả as number 1, so that #2 will be correct as #2.

You’re with me so far?!!😍

I know it’s a lot and a little confusing but bear with me.