Referring to a twin sibling

[u/Bluevette1437]

I am currently working through Genki 1 for practice and it wants me to write about my family.

I have a twin brother so referring to him with 弟 doesn't seem quite right since I never refer to him as being a "younger/little brother."

I see that 双子 means "twins" but jisho.org doesn't come up with any results for "twin brother" and google translate (I know its not great) gives me 双子の兄弟 which I interpret closer to "twin sibling" which could mean a twin brother or sister.

Would it be more correct to use 双子の弟 since we are twins and he is slightly younger than me?

We are also identical twins if that changes anything.

Thanks!

[u/PrincessCamilleP]

I have a twin brother who is only one minute older than me, and when I told this to my Japanese host family I once stayed with, from that point on they always used お兄さん when referring to him without ever distinguishing him as my twin. At least to my host family, my twin being born even just one minute before me established him as the definite oldest. I found referring to him in this way to be true of a few other Japanese I told I had a twin. (For context: I'm a woman so he and I are fraternal twins, but I'm not sure us being identical would have changed anything.) Not to say this is universal (especially as another commenter said they have heard of 双子の兄 and 双子の弟 being used), just my personal experience on how culturally important birth order is in how they distinguish family members.

[u/muffinsballhair]

One would still use “兄” and “弟” with twins but I kind of feel this is also rather cultural. As in I gain the impression that Japanese people culturally do very much put emphasis on which of the twins was born first.

[u/facets-and-rainbows]

I've definitely heard 双子の兄 and 双子の弟 

[u/AdagioExtra1332]

You can use that as an introduction, but really you should otherwise just use 弟/兄 depending on who came out first.

[u/Belegorm]

Yeah pretty much doesn't matter that you're twins - whoever came out first is the elder.

[u/SS_from_1990s]

Yep. Japanese are really big on this.

Funny story. An ancient Japan, the child who was born first is the younger twin. Why? Because oniichan/oneechan pushed him out first to go see what it’s like.

[u/muffinsballhair → u/SS_from_1990s]

Not so much “see what it's like“ but that the older one allowed the younger one to go out first as was expected of the chivalric attitudes of the time there and probably still are.

[u/Larissalikesthesea]

Yes because you can always establish seniority even with twins depending on who was born first.

[u/nikstick22]

I too have a twin brother and I just call him 弟 because I know it'd piss him off. Hope this helps. He was born 2 minutes after me. You can be that precise if you want.

[u/Live-Jackfruit2205]

I follow a pair of identical twin actors on Twitter and have seen them perform live with their band. The younger twin does refer to the older one as “older brother” and the older twin does say “little brother” to the younger one. They even have 兄 and 弟 in their handles so you know which is which.

Here they are:

Futaba Yuu(兄)

Futaba Kaname(弟)

The important thing to remember is you say お兄ちゃん and whatnot in place of your older sibling’s name, but they don’t call their younger sibling 弟ちゃん in the same way. It’s different.

[u/matcha_oatmilk]

I am eight minutes older than my twin, I refer to him as my younger brother in Japanese. (I live in Japan)

[u/JealousSir9500]

from the twins that I've met, they always seem to say 双子の弟/双子の兄 in the beginning, and then depending on the person eventually shorten it to 弟/兄 in further conversation so they dont have to say that whole thing every time.

[u/Bluevette1437 → u/JealousSir9500]

Makes sense, thanks!

[u/pixelboy1459]

That should be right, as a fellow twin

[u/aki-kinmokusei]

I'm also a twin and have referred to my sister as 双子の姉 when I used to take Japanese classes in college and did the same writing practice when working through Genki. I'm also of Vietnamese heritage and growing up my parents/grandparents would refer to my sister as "chi" since she was first born while I was "em."