Uncle in Persian: Amu vs Dâyi, Aunts, Cousins and Every Family Term

“Uncle” in Persian is two different words. Your father’s brother is عمو (amu), and your mother’s brother is دایی (dâyi). Aunts split the same way: عمه (amme) is your father’s sister and خاله (khâle) is your mother’s sister. Persian has no single word for “uncle” or “aunt”, so you always name the side of the family.

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That one idea, “which side and whose sibling”, runs through the whole Persian family vocabulary. Cousins, in-laws and nephews are built the same way, usually by sticking two family words together. Once you know about twenty basic words, you can name almost any relative. Below you will find the uncles and aunts, all eight kinds of cousin, in-laws (including the two words English doesn’t have), step and half relatives, grandparents, and how Iranians actually address their relatives, with practice after each part. Spoken forms, the way people talk at home in Tehran, are marked as spoken.

Uncle and aunt in Persian: the four basic words

English lumps four relatives into two words. Persian keeps them apart because each one belongs to a different side of the family, and in Iranian life the father’s side and the mother’s side are often two distinct social circles.

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A trick for remembering amu and dâyi

Pair them by sound and side. Amu and amme both start with “am-” and both belong to your father’s side. Dâyi and khâle belong to your mother’s side. So if you remember “am- words are dad’s side”, the other two fall into place.

The pronunciation is simple. عمو is “ah-MOO”, with the stress on the last syllable. دایی is “daa-YEE”, with a long â as in “father”. عمه has a doubled m, “am-MEH”, and the final ه is a silent h that just marks the -e sound. خاله starts with kh, the throaty sound in Scottish “loch”.

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Listen

What if you don’t know which side?

Then you describe the person. برادر پدرم (barâdar-e pedaram) is “my father’s brother”, and spoken Persian says داداش بابام (dâdâsh-e bâbâm). If you are talking about a relative of someone else and you’re not sure, you can ask:

• عموته یا داییته؟ (amute yâ dâyite?) Is he your amu or your dâyi? (spoken)
• از طرف پدرت یا مادرت؟ (az taraf-e pedaret yâ mâdaret?) On your father’s side or your mother’s? (spoken)

Relatives on the father’s side are فامیل پدری (fâmil-e pedari), and those on the mother’s side are فامیل مادری (fâmil-e mâdari).

Cousins in Persian: eight words, one pattern

There is no everyday Persian word that means just “cousin”. Instead you say whose child the cousin is: پسر (pesar, son) or دختر (dokhtar, daughter) plus the parent’s title. Four parents times two genders gives eight words, and you already know every piece.

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Notice that these compounds are said without the ezâfe link: people say pesar-amu, not pesar-e amu. If you add “my”, the ending goes on the whole compound: پسرعموم (pesar-amum, my cousin, spoken) or, in writing, پسرعمویم (pesar-amuyam).

Gender-neutral cousin words

For a cousin of either sex, or for cousins as a group, Persian adds -زاده (-zâde, “born of”): عموزاده (amuzâde), عمه‌زاده (ammezâde), دایی‌زاده (dâyizâde) and خاله‌زاده (khâlezâde). These sound more formal and bookish. In conversation, people use the pesar/dokhtar forms, or the plural بچه‌های خاله‌ام (bache-hâ-ye khâle-am, my khâle’s kids).

English speakers often ask how to say “my cousin” when the side doesn’t matter, for example when introducing someone at a party. The honest answer is that Iranians almost always name the side anyway. If you really need a vague word, فامیلمه (fâmilame, spoken) means “he’s / she’s a relative of mine”.

The immediate family

Most of these words have a standard form and a warmer spoken form. Use the standard form when you write or speak formally, and the spoken form at home, with friends, or when you talk about your own family casually. For a longer list with example sentences, see our family members in Persian vocabulary page.

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Listen

A false friend: فامیل

فامیل (fâmil) comes from French “famille”, but in Persian it means your relatives, the wider clan, not your parents and siblings. فامیلیم (fâmilim, spoken) means “we’re related”. In everyday speech فامیلی (fâmili) is also the word for a surname: فامیلیت چیه؟ (fâmilit chie?) means “What’s your last name?” The formal word for surname is نام خانوادگی (nâm-e khânevâdegi). If you are curious about surnames, read our guide to Iranian last names.

Grandparents and grandchildren

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Persian does not distinguish the father’s parents from the mother’s parents with separate words. If you need to, describe them: مادربزرگ پدری (mâdarbozorg-e pedari, paternal grandmother). Many families also have their own pet names for grandparents, so don’t be surprised to hear a grandmother called something you won’t find in any dictionary.

Nephews and nieces

Again, Persian asks “whose child?”. The everyday words use -زاده (-zâde) and are gender-neutral, so one word covers both nephew and niece.

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Here is a detail learners find charming: to a child, you are also named from their side. Your brother’s kids call you عمو or عمه; your sister’s kids call you دایی or خاله. So the same man is amu to some children in the family and dâyi to others.

In-laws in Persian

English says “mother-in-law” whether she is your wife’s mother or your husband’s mother. Persian names her through your spouse: مادرزن (mâdarzan) is literally “wife-mother” and مادرشوهر (mâdarshowhar) is “husband-mother”. So a man and a woman use different words for the same type of relative. A married man uses the -zan words; a married woman uses the -showhar words.

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Listen

Bâjenâgh and jâri: two words English is missing

If you and another man are married to two sisters, he is your باجناق (bâjenâgh). If you and another woman are married to two brothers, she is your جاری (jâri). English would need a whole sentence for each. Both relationships come up a lot in Iranian family life, so both words are common, and the jokes about competition between jâris and the friendship between bâjenâghs are a staple of Iranian comedy.

Another pair to know: عروس (arus) and داماد (dâmâd) mean both “bride / groom” at a wedding and “daughter-in-law / son-in-law” for life. A mother will say عروسم (arusam, my daughter-in-law) for decades after the wedding. Our article on the Persian wedding ceremony uses many of these words.

Step, half and adopted relatives

The prefix نا- (nâ-), which normally means “not”, builds the step words. The word ناتنی (nâtani, literally “not of the same body”) marks a half or step sibling.

A tip for learners: پسرخوانده means an adopted son, not a stepson. Many families also avoid the “step” words in daily life and simply introduce a stepparent by name or as همسر پدرم (hamsar-e pedaram, my father’s wife).

How Iranians address their relatives

Knowing the words is half the job. How people actually call each other at a family gathering is where Persian family vocabulary comes alive.

Add jun: amu jun, khâle jun

Iranians rarely call an uncle or aunt by first name alone. They use the title, usually softened with جان (jân, “dear”), which in speech becomes جون (jun): عمو جون (amu jun), خاله جون (khâle jun), دایی جون (dâyi jun), عمه جون (amme jun). In a big family with several uncles, the title goes before the name: دایی رضا (dâyi Rezâ), خاله مریم (khâle Maryam). Grown-ups keep using these titles all their lives; a fifty-year-old still says “khâle jun” to her aunt.

Listen
Listen
Listen

Calling non-relatives amu and khâle

Children in Iran call their parents’ friends, neighbors and even friendly shopkeepers عمو and خاله. A child will say مرسی خاله (mersi khâle, thanks, auntie) to the lady next door. Adults talking to a small child use the same words for themselves: بیا پیش عمو (biyâ pish-e amu, come to uncle). It’s a warm, family-style politeness, and it’s part of the same habit of courtesy described in our guide to taarof and Persian politeness. Note that دایی and عمه are not used this way: the stranger is always amu or khâle.

The reverse address

Persian has a habit that surprises learners: older relatives often call a child by their own title. A grandmother says to her grandchild بیا مادر (biyâ mâdar, come here, dear; literally “come, mother”). A dâyi calls his nephew دایی جون, and an aunt calls her niece خاله جون. It is an affectionate way of saying “you belong to me”, and it doesn’t confuse anyone in the family. Older people also call any young person پسرم (pesaram, my son) or دخترم (dokhtaram, my daughter) as a kind way of speaking.

Family words in Iranian culture

• عمو نوروز (Amu Nowruz), “Uncle Nowruz”, is the folk figure who brings the new year; read more in our page on Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
• خاله سوسکه (Khâle Suske), “Auntie Beetle”, is the heroine of a classic Iranian children’s tale.
• دایی جان ناپلئون (Dâyi Jân Nâpole’on, “My Uncle Napoleon”) is Iraj Pezeshkzad’s famous comic novel about a large Tehran family, later a much-loved TV series.
• خاله‌بازی (khâle-bâzi), literally “auntie game”, is what Iranians call children playing house.

Grammar you need for talking about family

Saying “my uncle”, “your aunt”

You can use the ezâfe with a pronoun, or the shorter possessive endings. With words ending in a vowel, like عمو and دایی, ezâfe becomes -ye: عموی من (amu-ye man, my amu). Our ezafe guide explains why.

Practice the endings in Persian Grammar Lesson 25: possessive pronouns. The plural is regular: عموها (amuhâ, uncles), خاله‌ها (khâle-hâ, aunts).

Useful sentences

• چندتا خواهر و برادر داری؟ (chandtâ khâhar-o barâdar dâri?) How many brothers and sisters do you have? (spoken)
• من دو تا عمو و یه خاله دارم. (man do tâ amu va ye khâle dâram.) I have two amus and one khâle. (spoken)
• این دخترخاله‌مه. (in dokhtar-khâlame.) This is my cousin (my khâle’s daughter). (spoken)
• آخر هفته می‌ریم خونه‌ی مادربزرگم. (âkhar-e hafte mirim khune-ye mâdarbozorgam.) We’re going to my grandmother’s house this weekend. (spoken)
• ما با هم باجناقیم. (mâ bâ ham bâjenâghim.) We’re married to sisters. (spoken)

Listen

For more dialogues like these, work through Talking About Relatives in Persian (Lesson 5 Speaking) and Persian Conversation 20: Talking About Your Family.

Where to go next

To review the core words with readings and exercises, try Lesson 5: Persian words for relatives, then test yourself with the Persian vocabulary quiz. Family words are among the first 1,500 words worth learning, and they are all in Top 1,500 Persian Words, along with the everyday vocabulary you need around them.

Common questions

What is uncle in Persian?

There are two words. Your father’s brother is عمو (amu) and your mother’s brother is دایی (dâyi). An uncle by marriage is named through the aunt: شوهرعمه (showhar-amme) or شوهرخاله (showhar-khâle). Iranians usually address an uncle as عمو جون or دایی جون.

What is the difference between amu and dayi?

Only the side of the family. Amu is the father’s brother and dâyi is the mother’s brother. Amu has a second use: children call any friendly man amu, while dâyi is kept for the real maternal uncle.

What is aunt in Persian, khale or amme?

Both. خاله (khâle) is your mother’s sister and عمه (amme) is your father’s sister. An aunt by marriage is زن‌عمو (zan-amu) or زن‌دایی (zan-dâyi).

How do you say cousin in Persian?

Say whose child the cousin is: pesar (son) or dokhtar (daughter) plus the parent’s title, as in پسرعمو (pesar-amu) or دخترخاله (dokhtar-khâle). That gives eight cousin words. Gender-neutral forms such as خاله‌زاده (khâlezâde) exist but sound formal.

How do you say mother-in-law in Persian?

It depends on who is speaking. A husband says مادرزن (mâdarzan, his wife’s mother); a wife says مادرشوهر (mâdarshowhar, her husband’s mother). Father-in-law works the same way: پدرزن and پدرشوهر.

What does amu jun mean?

عمو جون (amu jun) means “dear uncle”. It’s how you call your father’s brother to his face, and a child can also say it to any kind older man. In the same way, خاله جون is “dear auntie”.

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