兄

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 兄は会社員です。▶ —
   My older brother is an office worker.
2. お兄さんはいますか。▶ —
   Do you have an older brother?

Collocations

Mnemonic

あに — 兄, Sino-Japanese. One word holds the two axes of Japanese kinship — age: 兄 (older) ↔ 弟 (younger). distance: 兄 ani (your own family, humble) ↔ お兄さん oniisan (someone else's family, honorific). Even for the same older brother, in-group changes coat into out-group: my 兄 becomes your お兄さん. The pattern echoes Korean's 'jeohui hyeong / oppa' shift. Step into the onyomi and 兄 becomes きょう kyou — 兄弟 kyoudai (siblings). The Korean reading hyeong is sister to kyou. Unlike Korean, Japanese does not mark the speaker's gender — a male speaker's 兄 and a female speaker's 兄 are the same word; both nuna-style and oppa-style speakers say 兄.

Quick check

1. Polite way to ask "Do you have an older brother?"

   • お兄さんはいますか (honorific, correct)
   • 兄はいますか (humble form, used for own brother only)
   • お兄さんがあります (wrong verb — あります for objects)
   • 兄がありますか (wrong verb for people)