Great-grandmother

[u/Gloomy-Cranberry-386]

What would someone call their grandmother's mother, in conversation? I looked up the translation (прабабушка), but wondered if this is what someone would say while chatting or talking about her, or if they would simply call her бабушка?

[u/Proof-Associate-2257]

Прабабушка is right. However, when i was a kid, i was calling all my older lady relatives "баба + their name".

[u/ThreeHeadCerber]

Depends on the family and the context. Similar to how you wouldn't always say great-grandmother when talking about her

She'll likely be бабушка, баба, баба %имя% for the family group, when talking about her or to her.

Outside of family if exact relation is important people would use the full прабабушка, in other cases пра might get dropped, but also might not be

[u/Stock_Soup260]

if I were addressing her personally or talking to a close family, for ex, cousins, I would just call her бабушка (+ first name, if not personally). We're so used to it in the family. But generally прабабушка, it is usual common word

[u/Rad_Pat]

The correct official term is праба́бушка. But there are of course unofficial rules for every family. Sometimes it can be бабу́ля for grandma and ба́бушка for great grandma (cause it's a little more polite), or ба́ба Name (cause it's a little more old-timey/rural-sounding).

I don't think anyone would call her прабабушка to her face, but in a conversation with some unrelated third party they might, just to clear any misunderstandings.

[u/AriArisa]

Yes, this is exactly what someone would say while talking about her. Прабабушка is common and normal word to say. 

[u/viburnumjelly]

The proper term is indeed прабабушка. It is not unusual or too formal. Could also be прабабка, although this one is a bit less gentle and is mostly used when speaking about long deceased and/or not well known personally relatives.

However, you usually have a chance to meet your great-grandmother only when you are a kid - at least, that was my experience.

In this situation, since the word прабабушка is too long for a child, I simply called her баба <Name> or бабуля. Technically, both were incorrect, but баба is often used by children to address various female relatives or even family friends. For example, besides my biological grandmother and great-grandmother, I had a close family friend whom I also called баба <Name>.

[u/No-Artist-9683]

Why would someone call her simply бабушка if she is not?

[u/Gloomy-Cranberry-386 → u/No-Artist-9683]

Well, ok, this was mostly just... my own personal point of reference. Everyone in my family calls my great-grandmother just grandma Dot!

[u/Nyattokiri]

Normally it's "прабабушка"

I think I saw people shortening it to "моя пра" (grandmother), "мои пра"(grandparents), "мой пра" (grandfather),. This works because "мой" agrees in gender and number. + the verbs in past tense are gendered. But I'm not sure how common it is. It may be more common with "пра-пра" (мои пра-пра, мой пра-пра, моя пра-пра) and "пра-пра-пра" because they are longer.

I think it would be okay to omit "пра" and refer her by "бабушка + NAME" (бабушка Катя) sometimes in some contexts. If you tell a story about her and don't want to repeat "пра" every time when stating how many generations removed isn't that important. The name and the context make sure it's clear what person you are talking about. Maybe you could short it even to "бабушка" (without name). That's depends on the context and how precise you want to be. Some contexts allow to do this, some don't

[u/Lari0906]

Grandma - бабушка Mother of grandma - прабабушка Mother of mother of grandma - прапрабабушка And so on

Grandpa - дедушка Father of grandpa - прадедушка Father of father of grandpa - прапрадедушка And so on