Korean in-Law Titles: 25 Words with Romanization and Audio

Key facts

• Topic: Korean in-law titles for the husband's family (시댁) and the wife's family (처가).
• Words on the page: 25, in 5 groups.
• Pattern: 시- marks the husband's family, and 처- or 장- marks the wife's family.
• One in-law often has two words: an address form to call them and a reference form to talk about them.

What you'll learn

• Match all 25 titles to their English meanings and to the spouse who uses them.
• Choose the address form or the reference form for a given in-law.
• Say five of the titles aloud with the help of the Revised Romanization and the audio.
• Write two original sentences with words such as 시댁 and 처가.

Prerequisites: you can read Hangul, know the core words in Family Words, and recognise the polite ending -아요/-어요. Estimated time: about 75 minutes, plus short reviews on the following days.

Korean in-Law Titles at a Glance

Korean in-law titles answer two questions that English leaves open: which spouse is speaking, and whether you are calling the person or talking about them. English says "mother-in-law" for either spouse's mother; Korean says 시어머니 for the husband's mother and 장모 for the wife's mother. The 25 words fall into five groups.

Most in-law words are Sino-Korean: 시 (媤) means "husband's family", 처 (妻) means "wife", and 장 (丈) appears in 장인 and 장모, the wife's parents. The next section gives an order to learn them in.

Which in-Law Titles Should You Learn First?

Learn the parents-in-law first: 시어머니, 시아버지, 장인 and 장모, plus the address forms 어머님 and 아버님. These are the in-laws most people speak to, and a wrong word with them is the most noticeable. Then follow this order:

1. Step 1: 시댁 and 처가, the two family words.
2. Step 2: the parents-in-law and their address forms.
3. Step 3: the spouse's brothers and sisters: 시누이, 시동생, 아주버님, 처남 and 처제.
4. Step 4: siblings' spouses and the marriage words, such as 형부, 며느리 and 사돈.

Start with the half that fits you: a wife needs the 시댁 words most, a husband the 처가 words. In the scene below, each numbered person matches a word in the lists.

Word · 12

1. 1

   시어머니

   Play

   sieomeoni

   mother-in-law (husband's mother)

2. 2

   시아버지

   Play

   siabeoji

   father-in-law (husband's father)

3. 3

   시누이

   Play

   sinui

   husband's sister

4. 4

   시동생

   Play

   sidongsaeng

   husband's younger brother

5. 5

   아주버님

   Play

   ajubeonim

   husband's older brother

6. 6

   장인

   Play

   jangin

   father-in-law (wife's father)

7. 7

   장모

   Play

   jangmo

   mother-in-law (wife's mother)

8. 8

   처남

   Play

   cheonam

   wife's brother

9. 9

   처제

   Play

   cheoje

   wife's younger sister

10. 10

    며느리

    Play

    myeoneuri

    daughter-in-law

11. 11

    사위

    Play

    sawi

    son-in-law

12. 12

    사돈

    Play

    sadon

    the parents of your child's spouse

The husband's family stands on the left and the wife's family on the right, mirroring the two prefixes that organise the list.

How Do the 시- and 처- Prefixes Work?

The prefixes 시- (si-) and 처- (cheo-) tell you whose family a word belongs to. 시- attaches to the husband's family, so 시 + 어머니 (mother) gives 시어머니, the husband's mother. 처- attaches to the wife's family, as in 처가 (wife's family), 처남 (wife's brother) and 처제 (wife's younger sister).

The wife's parents break the 처- pattern: they are 장인 (wife's father) and 장모 (wife's mother). Learners who build words by analogy sometimes produce forms such as 처어머니, which Koreans do not use. The first group is the husband's family.

Husband's Family (시댁)

시댁 (sidaek) is the husband's family, seen from the wife's side. It is the respectful form of 시가 (siga): 댁 is the honorific word for a house or household, so a wife who says 시댁 shows respect to her husband's family in the word itself.

아주버님 is both the reference and the address word for the husband's older brother, so it never changes. The husband's younger brother is 시동생 when you talk about him, but the traditional address form is 도련님 while he is single and 서방님 after he marries. The husband's sister is 시누이 in reference; a wife calls an older one 형님 and a younger one 아가씨.

Example Sentences

Press play and repeat each sentence aloud. Sentences about parents-in-law use the honorific -(으)시- in the verb, as in 산책하세요, and the particle 께서 in place of 이/가.

The fourth sentence uses 장모님, the wife's mother, with 님 added for respect. That word belongs to the next group, the wife's family.

How Do You Say Wife's Family (처가) in Korean?

Wife's family is 처가 (cheoga) in Korean, seen from the husband's side. In speech many men say 처갓집 (cheogatjip), the home of the wife's parents, in the same way that 외갓집 names the mother's parents' home.

The wife's older sister is 처형 (cheohyeong). The wife's older brother is 처남 in reference, but the standard address form for him is 형님. The 처가 words in the table are plain reference words; the next group holds the respectful forms you say to an in-law's face.

Titles Used by the Spouse

Four respectful titles cover most direct speech with in-laws: 어머님, 아버님, 장인어른 and 형님. These are address forms, used to call or greet the person, and they sound warmer and more respectful than the reference words in the tables above.

형님 is the most flexible title on the page. A wife uses it for her husband's older sister and for the wife of her husband's older brother; a husband uses it for his wife's older brother and for the husband of his wife's older sister. Outside the family, men also use it for a respected older man. The suffix 님 is what makes these forms respectful, which the ssi vs nim lesson explains.

Who Says What: the Address Grid

The grids show which word each spouse uses for each in-law, split into address (what you call the person) and reference (how you mention them to others). They follow the standard etiquette guide 표준 언어 예절 (2011) of the 국립국어원 (National Institute of Korean Language).

A worked example shows the grid in use. Seo-yeon's husband has a father, an older brother and a younger sister. At a family dinner she calls her father-in-law 아버님, greets her husband's older brother with 아주버님, and calls his younger sister 아가씨. When she tells a friend about the dinner later, she says 시아버지, 아주버님 and 시누이. The people are the same; only the word type changes. Siblings' spouses follow a different rule.

What Do You Call Your Siblings' Spouses?

Titles for your siblings' spouses depend on your own gender, the same way the sibling words 오빠 and 형 do. A man calls his older brother's wife 형수 (hyeongsu), but a woman calls her older brother's wife 새언니 or refers to her as 올케. The five words below are the titles you hear most.

The full set has eight cells, because each title depends on the speaker's gender and on the sibling's age:

The sibling words behind these titles are explained in the older sibling titles lesson. The last group names the links a marriage creates between the two families.

Marriage Words

Five words name the links that a marriage creates. Parents call their son's wife 며느리 (myeoneuri) and their daughter's husband 사위 (sawi), and the two sets of parents are 사돈 (sadon) to each other.

동서 (dongseo) has two uses: the wives of two brothers are 동서 to each other, and so are the husbands of two sisters. In speech, the younger brother's wife calls the older brother's wife 형님, and the older one calls her 동서. 친정 (chinjeong) is a married woman's own parents' home, the counterpart of 시댁; a married man often calls his own parents' home 본가 (bonga). When the two sets of parents meet, they address each other as 사돈어른 or 사돈. All 25 words now need to be said clearly.

How Do You Pronounce These Words?

Press play to hear each title, then repeat it before you check the romanization. Most in-law words are read as written, but the eight below need care, following the standard pronunciation rules (표준 발음법) of the 국립국어원.

Expert tip: Korean gives every syllable about the same length and stress, so 장인어른 is four even beats, [장-이-너-른], not "jang-IN-eo-reun".

Audio and Slow Playback

Each title has a normal clip, and five key words also have a slow clip at 0.8 times the speed: 시댁, 처가, 시어머니, 장모 and 며느리. Nothing plays until you press a button.

Then listen to a wife arriving at her husband's parents' home, with the transcript under the player.

With the sounds in place, the next step is to avoid the common errors.

What Mistakes Do Learners Make with in-Law Titles?

Learners most often choose the right person but the wrong side, or the right word in the wrong form:

• Using 시- words for the wife's family. A husband's mother-in-law is 장모, never 시어머니.
• Calling a parent-in-law by the reference word. Say 어머님 to your mother-in-law, not 시어머니.
• Saying 장인 to his face. In address, a husband says 장인어른 or 아버님.
• Mixing up 매형 and 형부. Both mean older sister's husband, but men say 매형 and women say 형부.
• Treating 형님 as male-only. A wife calls her husband's older sister 형님 too.
• Hearing 아가씨 only as "miss". In the 시댁 it is the title for the husband's younger sister.

Learners often assume English "in-law" maps to one Korean prefix; actually Korean uses three (시-, 처- and 장-) plus the gendered sibling words, because the speaker's position picks the word. Address forms also follow wider politeness rules, covered in language etiquette.

Recent Changes in in-Law Titles

Several traditional titles are under discussion in Korea. A wife calls her husband's younger siblings 도련님 and 아가씨, respectful words once used for a household's young master and young lady, while a husband uses plain words such as 처남 and 처제 for his wife's younger siblings. Public debate since the late 2010s has questioned this imbalance.

Three practical changes follow from that debate:

• Some families now use a name plus 씨, such as 민수 씨, for a husband's younger siblings.
• Some couples use 어머님 and 아버님 for both sets of parents.
• Many husbands say 어머님 rather than 장모님 to their wife's mother.

The 국립국어원 guide 표준 언어 예절 (2011) still lists the traditional forms, and this page teaches them because you will hear them in families and dramas. The safest rule is to ask your spouse which words their family uses.

Honest limits: usage varies by region, generation and family, so treat these forms as the standard default, not the only correct choice. The page does not cover wedding-day vocabulary, which lives in Korean wedding vocabulary, or the plain words for a spouse, which are at husband in Korean and wife in Korean. Now test yourself.

Practice: Flashcards and Worksheet

Drill all 25 titles with the deck below, which uses the same words, order and audio as this page. Progress is saved only in your browser.

Drill in-law titles with spaced repetition in the vocabulary flashcard decks, including the Korean family words flashcards. A printable worksheet for these words (word list, matching, writing practice, fill-in-the-blank exercises and answer key) is available in A4 and US Letter from the download card on this page.

Try these five questions, then check the answers below.

1. A wife speaking to her husband's mother says ___.
2. A man's wife's younger sister is his ___.
3. A woman's older sister's husband is her ___, and a man's is his ___.
4. What are the wives of two brothers to each other?
5. Say in Korean: "My wife's family lives in Daegu."

Then write two sentences of your own, one with 시댁 and one with 처가. The quiz below checks the same rules.

Answers

1. 어머님, the address form; 시어머니 is for talking about her.
2. 처제, because 처- marks the wife's family.
3. 형부 for a woman and 매형 for a man.
4. 동서, a word that also links the husbands of two sisters.
5. 처가는 대구에 있어요. The family as a place takes 있어요.

Where to Go Next

This list sits inside Family Words, where you can find related topics such as parents and siblings. After this, many learners move on to Paternal and Maternal Relatives, which uses the same prefix logic for aunts, uncles and cousins. Korean in-law titles take practice, but a correct 어머님 or 장인어른 at the first family meal is noticed.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Say Husband's Family in Korean?

Husband's family is 시댁 (sidaek) in Korean. A wife uses it for her husband's parents and siblings as a group, and for their home. 시댁 is the respectful form of 시가 (siga), because 댁 is the honorific word for a house. The matching word for a wife's family is 처가 (cheoga).

How Do You Pronounce 처가 (cheoga)?

처가 is two even syllables, cheo-ga. The first starts with an aspirated ㅊ, a ch sound with a clear puff of air, followed by ㅓ, which sounds like the o in son. The second starts with a soft, unaspirated g. Press the audio button and repeat after the clip.

How Many in-Law Titles Should I Learn First?

Learn six first: 시어머니, 시아버지, 장인, 장모, 어머님 and 아버님. They name and address the parents-in-law, the in-laws you will speak to most. If you are the wife, add the 시댁 sibling words next; if you are the husband, add 처남 and 처제. All 25 take about a week.

Where Can I Practise in-Law Titles with Flashcards?

Use the deck on this page, which holds the same 25 titles with audio, in the same order as the tables. The vocabulary flashcard decks page lists the other family and relationship decks. Progress is saved only in your browser. Review each title one day after you learn it, then again after three days.

Is the Romanization on This Page Official?

It follows the Revised Romanization of Korean, the official system adopted by South Korea on 7 July 2000 and published by the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원). It is a learning aid, not a full pronunciation guide: 장인어른 is written jangineoreun, but 처갓집 hides its tense [찝]. Learn the Hangul and check with the audio.

Is There a Printable Worksheet for in-Law Titles?

A printable worksheet for these words (word list, matching, writing practice, fill-in-the-blank exercises and answer key) is available in A4 and US Letter from the download card on this page. The vocabulary worksheets page lists available sheets, including the Korean family words worksheet. You can also copy the address grid by hand and fill in the titles for your own spouse's family.

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