But you might have some
questions when it comes to your extended family and some
complicated family relations. Let's look at how to describe those people.
Grandparents and great-grandparents
As you know, your parents'
parents are your "grandparents". English speakers use lots of
different names for grandparents, but when they talk about them to other
people, they usually just use the words "grandfather" and
"grandmother":
Hey, Nana. How
are you?
I went to see my
grandmother this weekend.
You can specify which
grandparents you mean by saying whose "side" they are on:
My grandmother on
my mom's side is Korean.
Or you can call a grandparent
on your mother's side your maternal grandparent. A grandparent on
your father's side is a paternal grandparent. These are more
formal:
The patient says
that his maternal grandfather died of brain cancer.
Your grandparents' parents are
your great-grandparents. You might also have great-uncles and great-aunts.
These are your parents' aunts and uncles.
You can keep adding
"great-" for each generation:
My
great-great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War.
People like your
great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents can also be called your ancestors:
My ancestors
came here from France at the beginning of the 18th Century.
In the other direction, you
may have grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on.
These are your descendants.
Other Extended Family
Your grandparents are part of
your extended family. Other extended family members include your aunts and uncles.
In English we usually call someone "aunt" and "uncle"
whether they are related by blood or by marriage:
We're going over
to Uncle Brian and Aunt Polly's house on Sunday.
In some families, kids also
call their parents' close friends "Aunt" or "Uncle".
Your cousins are other people
who you're related to. When people talk about "cousins", they usually
mean first cousins. A first cousin is the child of your parents'
brothers or sisters.
We also count other distant
relatives as cousins. A second cousin is one of your
parents' cousins' children. and a third cousin is one of your
grandparents' cousins' children. You can even talk about a "second cousin
once removed", which is a complicated relationship that many English
speakers have heard of, but only a few of us understand. You can read a full explanation on
Wikipedia.
Your brothers and sisters are
also called your siblings. The son of one of your siblings is your nephew,
and the daughter of one of your siblings is your niece.
In-Laws
Your husband or wife's family
are your in-laws. You call members of your spouse's family
"mother-in-law", "brother-in-law", and so on. But that
usually stops with immediate family. For extended family, you need to explain
the relationship more clearly:
My wife's
grandmother passed away last week.
You can also call your child's
wife or husband your "daughter-in-law" or "son-in-law":
My daughter and
son-in-law are in town this week.
More Complicated Family Relations
Divorces, remarriages, and
adoptions create other kinds of relationships.
A step-mother or step-father is
someone who's married to your father or mother.
If your step-mother or
step-father has children from a previous relationship, those are your step-brothers or step-sisters.
But if your parent and step-parent have a child together, that's your half-brother or half-sister.
People who were adopted have a
few other kinds of family members. They usually calls the people who adopted
them "mother" and "father". These are their adoptive
parents.
They call the mother and
father who created them their "biological parents" or "birth
parents".
Try it out!
Think through all of the
people in your extended family and try to explain how they're related to you in
English.