How To Say “Grandpa” In Different Languages

Do you remember Carl Fredricksen from the Disney-Pixar movie Up? You know, the grumpy grandpa figure who ended up flying his entire house to Paradise Falls in South America. Also, Carl wore that cute black bow tie and he used that walker with tennis-ball-wheels. With this extra information, can you remember this tweed-wearing mister?

Anywho, Carl or Mr. Fredricksen, as Wilderness Explorer Russell liked to call him, really embodied that old and cold, gruff grandpa figure. However, he wasn’t really a true grump for some random reason. He was like that because he was lonely. His wife called Ellie passed on and her passing left him alone and sad and a bit testy. Rest in peace, Ellie.

Even though the movie portrayed Mr. Fredricksen as someone a bit cranky with a stereotypical get-off-my-lawn kind of vibe, he still managed to show a bit of kindness to Russell and his unusual crew of adventurers. If you were to ask me, I think that’s enough of a plot twist to make me like prickly Carl. And that makes me wonder: if Carl was a granddad to his grandchildren, would he have been less irritable? Also, what would his grandchildren call him? Gramps? Grandfather? Opa? What do you think? Well, go ahead and take a guess what grandpa nickname would suit Mr. Carl Fredricksen the best.

• English: grandpa, gramps, grandad, granda, pa, pops, grandfather, grampy
• French: grand-père, grand-papa, pépé
• German: Opa, Opi, Op, Großvater (grossvater)
• Korean: 할아버님 (harabeonim), 할아버지 (harabeoji), 할비 (halbi)
• Tagalog: lolo, tatay (can also mean “father”)
• Dutch: opa, grootvader, grootpapa
• Japanese: そふ (sofu), おじいさん (ojīsan), じいちゃん (jiichan)
• Indonesian: kakek, opa
• Polish: dziadek, dziadziu, dziadzio
• Portuguese: avô, vovô
• Russian: Дедушка (dedushka), Дед (ded)
• Spanish: abuelo, abuelito, yayo, tata, tito
• Chinese: 魏爷 (wei ye, to call your mother’s father), 爷爷 (ye ye, to call your father’s father)
• Italian: nonno, nonnino, nonnetto, nonnuccio
• Greek: παππούς (papous), Παππούλη (pappouli), παππού (pappu)
• Swahili: babu
• Swedish: farfar (to call your father’s father), morfar (to call your mother’s father)
• Norwegian: bestefar, morfar (to call your mother’s father), farfar (to call your father’s father)
• Danish: bedstefar, farfar (to call your father’s father), morfar (to call your mother’s father)
• Hindi: दादा (daada), नाना (nānā)
• Turkish: dede, büyükbaba