zompist bboard

Do these seem old fashioned to you? Personally I'd always say "older brother" and "older sister". "elder" sounds a bit old fashioned.

As a native speaker from the US, "elder brother/sister" definitely sounds old fashioned to me. "Older" is the default in my experience.

I'm comfortable with using both "elder" and "older," but then I'm probably more used to "elder" because my family's Indian and I've read a lot of Indian English since childhood.

I wouldn't say "old fashioned". I would definitely use "older brother" in preference but I wouldn't be especially surprised if someone used the other form.

Disclaimer: I'm an only child. However, "elder brother" and "older brother" both sound rather formal to me; in my experience most siblings seem to prefer the term "big brother/big sister" informally. However, especially in a joking context, it wouldn't sound strange to me to hear a younger sibling call their older sibling "my elder" (e.g., "He's my elder by two years" or [sarcastically] "I guess I have to listen to him because he's my elder").

Zaarin wrote:Disclaimer: I'm an only child. However, "elder brother" and "older brother" both sound rather formal to me; in my experience most siblings seem to prefer the term "big brother/big sister" informally. However, especially in a joking context, it wouldn't sound strange to me to hear a younger sibling call their older sibling "my elder" (e.g., "He's my elder by two years" or [sarcastically] "I guess I have to listen to him because he's my elder").

Some think "big brother" and "big sister" sound childish and sound more like how a child would refer to their older siblings.

Fooge wrote:Some think "big brother" and "big sister" sound childish and sound more like how a child would refer to their older siblings.

Yeah, I'd pretty much only use "big/little" with "brother" or "sister" when I was consciously trying to invoke childhood associations.

linguoboy wrote:

Fooge wrote:Some think "big brother" and "big sister" sound childish and sound more like how a child would refer to their older siblings.

Yeah, I'd pretty much only use "big/little" with "brother" or "sister" when I was consciously trying to invoke childhood associations.

Well, the last time I hung around siblings I was a teenager, so that would explain it. :p (Not that none of my friends have siblings--I just don't have any friends whose siblings are also my friends.)

I never called my brother anything but his name. I only use "older brother" when talking to other people. I never use elder or big, and I have never heard anyone say those. I have heard a lot of "little brother" though. Then again, I call my parents mother and father when speaking in English, which is uncommon. I always call them אמא and אבא when addressing them, regardless of what language I' talking in. My אמא in particular is very touchy about being called "mommy" or "mom", as she finds it distasteful and always responds by saying אני לא מומיה.

mèþru wrote:I never called my brother anything but his name.

I've literally never called mine by name. I only ever call him "Achicha" [aˈt͡ʃit͡ʃa] with an optional glottal stop at the beginning. It's based on how I pronounced [əˈt͡ʃaːt͡ʃa], the term for '(my) older brother' in our family.

I practically exclusively call my mother and father "mom" and "dad" when speaking to them or with them present. I only use "mother" and "father" to refer to them when speaking to other people with them not present.

As for my sister, I normally refer to her as "Mere" [mɛ(ː)ʁ], short for Meredith, as do the other members of my family; likewise I am normally called "Trav" [tʃʰɻ͡ʁɛːf] by other members of my family, obviously short for Travis. We normally only use "brother" or "sister" to refer to each other when speaking to other people outside my immediate family.