How do you say Uncle in German?

Family words are some of the first we learn - and some of the most useful. When talking about childhood, relatives, or introducing someone, knowing how to say uncle in German will come in handy again and again.

The word for uncle in German is der Onkel. It’s masculine, and the plural is die Onkel - with no ending change (colloquially you’ll also hear die Onkels). That’s not unusual in German, especially for borrowed or simple family terms. If you’d like help understanding how gender and articles work, my video lesson on gender makes things clear in just a few minutes.

Onkel is one of the 1000 most frequently used nouns in German, and it’s a core part of vocabulary for describing family relationships, telling stories, or navigating introductions.

Here’s how Onkel works across all four grammatical cases:

Nominative:Mein Onkel lebt in Österreich.My uncle lives in Austria.

Accusative:Wir besuchen unseren Onkel am Wochenende.We’re visiting our uncle this weekend.

Dative:Ich habe meinem Onkel ein Buch geschenkt.I gave my uncle a book.

Genitive:Das ist das Auto meines Onkels.That’s my uncle’s car.

You’ll hear Onkel used with verbs like haben (to have), sein (to be), besuchen (to visit), erzählen von (to talk about), or kennen (to know). Phrases like mein Lieblingsonkel (my favorite uncle), der verrückte Onkel aus Amerika, or ein Onkel väterlicherseits (an uncle on the father’s side) are common in stories and family talk.