Name family relationships in English

Family in English is "family", but to talk about family relationships there are many other words.

Mr. Quang Nguyen, an English pronunciation training expert, shares some vocabulary and pronunciation related to this topic.

Talking about family relationships in English

In Vietnam, we have the custom of worshipping our ancestors - ancestors are "ancestors". As for descendants, we use the word "decendents", for example: "We're all decendents of Hung King".

To talk about common relatives, we use the word "relatives". For example, when I was interviewed for a visa in the US, I was asked: "Do you have family or relatives in the state?". I answered: "Yes, I have a cousin, we share the same great great grand parents".

"Cousin" is a cousin. In Vietnamese, the person with the highest rank is called "kỵ" (great great grand parents), then "cự" (great grand parents), "ông bà (grand parents), and "bồ chủ" (parents). For example: We have the same great great great grandparents. However, if I want to talk about ancestors who are higher in rank, Vietnamese doesn't know how to express it. I guess we can say generally that we have the same "to to" (ancestors).

English is better, add a "great" to each generation and you can extend it as long as you want. Siblings are often referred to as "brothers and sisters", but there is a general term that few people know, which is "siblings", for example: "They're siblings". If they have the same parents, they are called "half-sibling" (or half-brother/sister).

A son is "son", a daughter is "daughter", children in general are "child" and the plural is "children". When referring to a son, parents can use "my boy/girl" instead of "my son/daughter", especially when wanting to show pride: "That's my boy/daughter".

But there is a word for "offspring" that few people know: "offspring", for example "He's the offspring of a middle-class family". The word "offspring" is often used in the animal world to mean offspring or "offspring", "the offsring of some animals...".

Everyone knows about parents, "father and mother" or "parents" in general. In Vietnam, there is a meeting called "parents meeting", in English it is called "parent - teacher conference".

In English, an uncle is called "uncle", and an aunt is called "aunt" (pronounced like "ant"). A cousin is called "grand-uncle" or "grand-aunt".

When a man gets married, the words to refer to his wife's relatives often add "in-law", for example: mother-in-law is mother-in-law, father-in-law is father-in-law. The wife's relatives are generally called "in-laws", for example: "They're my in-laws". Even "brother-in-law" is also called "brother-in-law", because that relationship is related to the wife's family.

When a man gets married, he has many more "in-laws", but the wife is not called "law", she is called "wife". Husband and wife are called "husband and wife", but in general, there is the word "spouse" - for example, when filling out a form that has the word "spouse", I will write my wife/husband's information there.

Quang Nguyen

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