A: I need to buy some food because my brother is coming to visit this weekend.
B: Your brother? I’m surprised; you never mentioned having a brother.
A: Oh, didn’t mention that? I have a much younger brother. He’s 18 years old and he’s coming to check out the universities that he wants to get into.
B: You must be looking forward to it!
In this situation, what should you say ‘I have a much younger brother’ in Japanese?
Casual
A：あれ、言ってなかった？年の離れた弟がいて、今18歳。志望大学を見に来るって。
Note: This is not a word-for-word translation.
Advanced Tips
A word-for-word translation
A：あれ、言っていませんでしたか？私にはずっと年下の弟がいるの。18歳で、志望大学を見に来るの。
I don’t think it sounds weird, and I feel like I’ve heard ずっと年下の before. However, I find it a bit off.
Maybe it’s because the word 弟 originally refers to a younger,
( 年下) sibling, so it feels a bit strange to specify 年下.
However, by adding ずっと, I feel like the awkwardness is alleviated a little, though.
In that sense, 年の離れた is better for avoiding the weird connotations.
Maybe you feel 年の離れた doesn’t contain the meaning ‘-er’ of ‘younger’, but in this case, 離れた indicates that meaning.
Siblings are basically apart from in age expect for twins.
So deliberately mentioning 離れた like this can convey the idea that it must be far apart.
