Words for family members have two different forms in Japanese. When referring to one's own family members while speaking to a non-family-member, neutral, descriptive nouns are used, such as for "mother" and for "older brother". When addressing one's own family members or addressing or referring to someone else's family members, honorific forms are used. Using the suffix "-san", as is most common, "mother" becomes and "older brother" becomes . The honorifics "-chan" and "-sama" may also be used instead of "-san", to express a higher level of closeness or reverence, respectively.