How To Say Grandpa in German? And What Is The Name For Grandfather?

There are a few different ways how to say grandpa in German. In short, you would say Opa. (Der) Opa, the grandpa, is a masculine singular noun. The plural would be (die) Opas.
 

This is the informal German term for grandfather, and you would translate it as grandpa or grampa. 

 

The word is ordinarily used with a definite article in most parts of central Germany, southern Germany, and Austria.

 

•  Wo ist der Opa? – "Where is Grandpa?

 

In the north of Germany, and commonly in writing, no article tends to be used.

 

•  Wo ist Opa? - "Where is Grandpa?"

 

Keep in mind that there are several forms of Standard German. The German language also has a few different dialects; spelling and pronunciation may be different depending on area and dialect. 

 

Common regional differences in pronuncation of grandpa in German

We use the IPA to write down phonetically the different ways to pronounce the name for grandpa. 

 

1. /ˈoːpa/ - Standard German
2.  /ˈɔpa/ mainly in western Germany
3. /ˈoːpʰɐ/ some speakers from the area in and around Kiel
4.  /ˈɔ.pas/ for the plural, Opas

 

 

In the rest of this article, we will dive further into synonyms for grandpa in the German language. 

 

If you would like to know more practical German vocabulary, take a look at our German frequency dictionary series. These books list the 10.000 most common words in German with IPA phonetic spelling and bilingual example sentences. 

 

How To Say Grandfather

 

The formal name for grandfather is (der) Grossvater / Großvater or Grossvader / Großvader. You would pronounce this word as /ˈɡʁoːsfatɐ/. This term is slightly archaic and less in use in modern-day German than Opa. The plural would be (die) Grossväter / Großväter or Grossväder / Großväder

 

More synonyms for grandpa would be:

 

• Großpapa
• Opapa
• Opi (affectionate)
• Ätti (Switzerland)
• Altvater

 

How Do You Say Great-Grandpa in German?

 

You can simply add the prefix "ur" to Opa or Grossvater.

 

• Uropa, Uropas  - Great-grandpa('s)
• Urgrossvater, Ugrossväter  - Great-grandfather('s)

 

Hyponyms

 

If you want to designate which grandpa you, you can use the following terms:

• Großvater mütterlicherseits (on the mother's side, maternal grandfather)
• Großvater väterlicherseits (on the father's side, paternal grandpa)

 

Conclusion

 

We hope to have informed you sufficiently on the various translations of how to say Grandpa in the German language. We gave you several IPA pronunciations, a few different synonyms and some hyponyms. 

 

  

If you would like to know more about family and the different ways of addressing them, in the next few articles, we are going to look at how to say:

 

• Grandma and grandmother
• Grandparents 

 

Do you have any questions or comments? We would love to hear about them. Please let us know in the comment section below!