MozhiLingo
via
Learning
← All lessons
Lesson 8A1

Family

కుటుంబం

German nouns carry grammatical gender (der/die/das). For people, this usually lines up with biological sex — the closest Telugu parallel is the మహత్ (rational) noun class, which likewise tracks male vs. female for people through pronouns and verb agreement, though not quite as evenly as German's three-way split.

Grammar Comparison

వ్యాకరణ పోలిక

der/die for people ≈ Telugu's పురుష/స్త్రీ pronoun-and-verb split

German

der Vater (masc.) / die Mutter (fem.)

Telugu

వాడు తండ్రి / ఆమె తల్లి (masc./fem. pronoun & verb agreement)

Telugu doesn't put der/die/das in front of nouns, but its pronoun system (వాడు, ఆమె) and matching verb endings already track male vs. female for people — the same underlying idea German expresses with articles. Learning German gender for family words is mostly memorizing which article, not learning a brand-new concept. One caveat worth remembering from the pronouns lesson: Telugu's verb-ending split is really masculine vs. everything-else (feminine and neuter share one ending), so it doesn't fully rehearse German's clean three-way der/die/das distinction — just the masculine/feminine half of it that matters for people.

Vocabulary

పదజాలం

die Mutterdee MOO-ter
Telugu
అమ్మamma
English
mother
der Vaterdair FAH-ter
Telugu
నాన్నnaanna
English
father
der Bruderdair BROO-der
Telugu
సోదరుడుsodarudu
English
brother
die Schwesterdee SHVES-ter
Telugu
సోదరిsodari
English
sister
die Großmutterdee GROHS-moo-ter
Telugu
అమ్మమ్మammamma
English
grandmother
der Großvaterdair GROHS-fah-ter
Telugu
తాతయ్యthathayya
English
grandfather
der Sohndair zohn
Telugu
కొడుకుkoduku
English
son
die Tochterdee TOKH-ter
Telugu
కూతురుkooturu
English
daughter