In Mandarin Chinese, one word for a child or children is 小朋友 (xiǎopéngyǒu), which means literally ‘little friend’. It’s generally used by adults to address children.
My god-daughters, Isla & Mia
The other day when talking about my experiences in China, I translated 小朋友 from Chinese into French as petits amis, which means boyfriends. I was talking about children, and didn’t realise I’d said something unusual until my friends looked at me strangely, and asked if that’s what I really meant. I assured them I was talking about enfants (children) and not petits amis.
Other ways to refer to children in Mandarin include:
- 孩子 (háizi) = child
- 小孩子 (xiǎo háizi) = (small) child
- 儿童 (értóng) = child(ren)
- 孩童 (háitóng) = child
- 小儿 (xiǎo’ér) = young child
- 少儿 (shào’ér) = child
- 娃娃 (wáwa) = baby, small child, doll
Source: https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary
Words for older sister – 妹妹 (mèimei), younger sister – 姐姐 (jiějie), older brother – 哥哥 (gēge) and younger brother – 弟弟 (dìdi) – can also be used to refer to children in Mandarin.
Other ways to refer to a child in French include:
- bambin = toddler
- bout de chou, bout d’chou, boutchou = sweet little thing, little one, little tot
- chérubin = cherub
- fils = son
- fille = daughter
- galopin = urchin, scamp, brat, ragamuffin
- gamin = kid, street urchin, street kid (dated)
- marmot = kid, brat
- minot = kid, lad
Source: https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/enfant#fr
Have you mistranslated terms like I did?
Are there interesting words for child(ren) you know in French or other languages?
小孩子 = háitóng, or is it a typo?
Yes, that was a typo.