People and family in Kazakh

138 words Kazakh words on the topic “people and family”: Дос — friend, Отбасы — family, Ана — mom, Әке — dad. 138 words can be played from recordings.

Updated September 1, 2026 · Lingofly

138 words on the topic

How it sounds in a sentence

A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.

What is worth knowing about these words

Дос — friend. A Persian loanword — the same one you hear in dinner-party company words of the east.

Отбасы — family. "Ot" is "fire", "basy" is "its head": literally "the ones at the hearth".

Ана — mom. Hence "ana tili", "the mother tongue" — literally "the mother's language".

Әке — dad. Father. To one's own father one says "ake" or "aketai"; the grandfather is "ata", and the two must not stand in for each other.

Test yourself

First by ear — the way you will meet the word in conversation. Click the speaker and pick the translation.

What is this word?
It is Дос — friend.
What is this word?
It is Көрші — neighbor.
What is this word?
It is Бейтаныс — stranger.
What is this word?
It is Аласа — low.
What is this word?
It is Сырт келбет — appearance.

Now the other way around: recall the spelling from the meaning. That is harder, and therefore more useful.

How do you say “friend” in Kazakh?
A Persian loanword — the same one you hear in dinner-party company words of the east.
How do you say “neighbor” in Kazakh?
From "koru", "to see": a neighbor is one you can see. "Korshiles" is "neighboring".
How do you say “stranger” in Kazakh?
"Bei-" is the prefix of negation, "tanys" is "familiar". Works as an adjective too: "beitans qala", "an unfamiliar city".
How do you say “low” in Kazakh?
About height and about low things. A low sound or price takes the other word.
How do you say “appearance” in Kazakh?
"The outer side" plus "looks": together — how a person looks from outside.

How to learn the set instead of just reading it

Mum, friend, child, neighbour. The first thing people ask you about, and the first thing you tell about yourself.

A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.

Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many times
Adesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
This holds not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many times
Mawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.

Frequently asked

How do you say “friend” in Kazakh?

«Дос». A Persian loanword — the same one you hear in dinner-party company words of the east. It is one of 138 words in the set “people and family” — the rest are in the table above.

How many family words do you need to start?

A dozen is enough. The set of 138 words on this page covers nearly every everyday case on the topic — but it is best taken a few at a time, not all at once.

Is there audio?

Yes, 138 words on this page can be played — click the speaker next to the word. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.

People and family in Kazakh

138 words on the topic

How it sounds in a sentence

What is worth knowing about these words

Test yourself

How to learn the set instead of just reading it

Frequently asked

How do you say “friend” in Kazakh?

How many family words do you need to start?

Is there audio?

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