အမ
a.ma./ʔəma̰/
The Burmese word for sister is အမ (a.ma.) or ညီမ.
Meaning: woman or girl having the same parents (noun)
Ways to say it
| Burmese | Romanization (Wiktionary) | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| အမ | a.ma. | /ʔəma̰/ |
| ညီမ | nyima. | /ɲìma̰/ |
In Burmese, the specific word you use for sister depends on whether the sister is older or younger than you. You can also use the term ညီမလေး to refer to a 'little sister', which is a very common and affectionate way to refer to a younger sister.
Which one should you use?
The term အမ refers specifically to an older sister, while ညီမ refers specifically to a younger sister.
How do you pronounce it?
a.ma.
Did you know?
- If a woman is older than the speaker, calling her ညီမ instead of အမ can be seen as a compliment to her youthful appearance.
- A woman may refer to herself as ညီမ when speaking to a superior or an older person as a way of showing humility.
- In many Southeast Asian cultures, including Burmese society, these terms are frequently used for people who are not related by blood at all to create a sense of communal intimacy.
Examples in context
- ညီမလေးက အရုပ်နဲ့ ကစားနေတယ်လေ။My younger sister is playing with a doll.This sentence shows how to use the form ညီမ to describe a younger sister playing.Tatoeba #10642511 by zawtunlatt, translation #10022857 by Cabo
- ကျွန်တော့်မှာ အမ တစ်ယောက် ရှိပါတယ်။kyan taw hmar a ma ta yauk shi par tal.I have one older sister.
Example conversation
Aung Aung is asking Myat Noe about her family.
- အောင်အောင် Aung Aungမြတ်နိုးမှာ အမ ရှိလား။myat noe hmar a ma shi larDo you have a sister, Myat Noe?
- မြတ်နိုး Myat Noeဟုတ်ကဲ့၊ အမ တစ်ယောက်ရှိပါတယ်။hoke kae, a ma ta youk shi par talYes, I have one sister.
- အောင်အောင် Aung Aungသူက ဘာအလုပ်လုပ်တာလဲ။thu ka bar a lout lout tar laeWhat does she do for work?
- မြတ်နိုး Myat Noeကျွန်မအမက ဆရာမတစ်ယောက်ပါ။kyan ma a ma ka sayar ma ta youk parMy sister is a teacher.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “sister” translations and entries အမ, ညီမ, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
