အကို
a.kui/ʔəkò/
The English word 'brother' is translated into Burmese using အကို (a.kui). Wiktionary also lists ညီ (nyi) and မောင် (maung).
Meaning: male sibling (noun)
Ways to say it
| Burmese | Romanization (Wiktionary) | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| အကို | a.kui | /ʔəkò/ |
| ညီ | nyi | /ɲì/ |
| မောင် | maung | /màʊɴ/ |
In Burmese culture, အကို is used not only for biological older brothers but also as a respectful way to address any older male peer or stranger. The term ညီ is used for a younger brother, distinguishing him from an older brother. The term မောင် can refer to a younger brother, but it is also frequently used by a wife to address her husband in a romantic or affectionate way.
How does it change in a sentence?
Adding the particle လေး to ညီ to form ညီလေး makes the term more affectionate or emphasizes that the brother is much younger.
How do you pronounce it?
The pronunciation of အကို is /ʔəkò/ (a.kui).
When do people say it?
The term မောင် is also frequently used by a wife to address her husband in a romantic or affectionate way.
Did you know?
- The term ညီ shares ancient roots with the Akha language, specifically the word à-njí, which also means 'younger sibling'.
- While English uses one word for 'brother', Burmese requires the speaker to first determine the relative age of the two people before choosing between အကို, ညီ or မောင်.
Examples in context
- မနေ့ကလာတဲ့ ယောကျ်ားလေးက ကျနော့် ညီလေးပါ။The boy who came yesterday was my younger brother.This sentence shows how to use ညီ to refer to a younger brother.Tatoeba #5042328 by Khamlan, translation #4774182 by legalghost
- ကျနော့်မှာ အကိုတစ်ယောက်ရှိတယ်။kyanawt hmar a ko ta yout shi de.I have one older brother.
- အကိုက အရမ်းတော်တယ်။a ko ga ayan taw de.My older brother is very smart.
Example conversation
Aung Aung introduces his sibling to Hnin Hnin.
- အောင်အောင် Aung Aungနှင်းနှင်း၊ ဒါက ကျွန်တော့် အကိုပါ။Hnin Hnin, da ga kyun-taw a-ko ba.Hnin Hnin, this is my brother.
- နှင်းနှင်း Hnin Hninတွေ့ရတာ ဝမ်းသာပါတယ်။tway ya da wan thar ba tal.Nice to meet you.
- အောင်အောင် Aung Aungသူက အင်ဂျင်နီယာတစ်ယောက်ပါ။thu ga in-gyin-ni-yar ta-yauk ba.He is an engineer.
- နှင်းနှင်း Hnin Hninဟုတ်လား၊ အံ့သြစရာပဲ။hote la, am-thaw sa yar pal.Really? That's surprising.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “brother” translations and entries အကို, ညီ, မောင်, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries ညီ, အကို, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
