Friday, September 28, 2018

vocabulary - Which one is correct: "my little brother" or "my smaller brother"?


If I'm 18 and my brother is 15, is he my little brother and I'm his elder brother? Or he is my smaller brother and I'm his bigger one?


Any clarifications?



Answer



When you want to be clear that the distinction is about age, the simplest and most obvious choice is, like Shaunak Sukla says:



younger brother, older brother



However, it is very common to refer to a younger sibling as little or an older one as big (usually not bigger!):




little brother, big brother



Although this refers to size, in practice it normally means the little one is the youngest. It is also used between grown-ups to indicate the (usually by then irrelevant) difference in age. It is even done jokingly, especially if the younger sibling has outgrown the older one.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Simple past, Present perfect Past perfect

Can you tell me which form of the following sentences is the correct one please? Imagine two friends discussing the gym... I was in a good s...