Question

Quick Mandarin question - most natural way to say "he has three sisters?" would I say "ta you san ge jiejie" or just "ta you san ge jie"? @angle @kittybasil

Answer 1

I think "jiejie" is more of a nickname-type term, so probably the second phrase?

Answer 2

ty

Answer 3

nonono
chinese terms comes in pairs
jiejie is the better one

Answer 4

jie by itself is the more "nickname"-like one

it is more informal to be dropping characters

Answer 5

oh ok

Answer 6

also, jiejie is specifically "older sister"
meimei is for "younger sister"
if you want a vague without-age "sister": it would be "jie mei"

so "ta you san ge jie mei"

Answer 7

jie mei can only be used in a plural case

it insinuates that some of the sisters are older and some a younger

if you only have one sister, the term "jie mei" cannot be used and it is best to use either "jie jie" or "mei mei"

Answer 8

is there an equivalent of jie mei for brothers, then?

Answer 9

older brother = ge ge
younger brother = di di

similarly you can use "ge di"

although there is a more culturally accepted term of "xiong di", which sounds more manly and is used more often. it also means "brothers" but is not necessarily brothers by blood. kinda like how cool americans might call their close guy friends "me and my bros" but they aren't actually blood related "brothers"

Answer 10

alright, thank you

Answer 11

feels inadequate in phrasing now lol