When you make new friends they often want to understand about your family, this relations vocabulary page will teach you tons of the words you'll get to be ready to mention your family.
After watching this page you'll be ready to ask people about your family. This list contains all the vocabulary you'll get to be ready to describe families. Attempt to learn as many of the words as possible.
Below is the relations vocabulary list. You ought to learn the maximum amount as you'll be watching the words and therefore, the definitions.
Adult: A person who has finished growing and is no longer a child. (noun)
Adopt: To legally take someone else’s child to become your own child. (verb)
Aunt: The sister of your father of mother, or the wife of your uncle. (noun)
Baby: A very young child who is not yet able to speak or walk. (noun)
Bachelor: A man who has never been married. (noun)
Bachelorette: A woman who has never been married. (noun)
Boy: A male child or a young male person. (noun)
Brother: A boy or man who has the same parents as you. (noun)
Born: To come out of your mother’s body and to start to exist. (verb)
Birth: The time when a baby comes out of its mother’s body. (noun)
Birthday: The day each year which is the same date as the one on which you were born. (noun)
Bride: A woman on her wedding day. (noun)
Bridegroom: A man on his wedding day. (noun)
Bring up: To look after a child and teach him or her how to behave, etc. (verb)
Child (plural: children): A young person who is below the age of puberty or below the legal age of maturity. (noun)
Couple: Two people who are married or having a romantic relationship. (noun)
Cousin: The child of your uncle or aunt. (noun)
Daddy: A child’s word for a father (also dad). (noun)
Daughter: Someone’s female child. (noun)
Daughter-in-law: The wife of your son/child. (noun)
Delivery: The process of giving birth. (noun)
Descendant: Someone who is related by blood to a person who lived a long time ago. (noun)
Divorce: To legally end a marriage. (verb)
Divorced: To be no longer married to your wife or husband. (adjective)
Elder: To be born first. (adjective)
Engagement: An agreement between two people to marry in the near future. (noun)
Engaged: Having agreed to marry somebody. (adjective)
Family: A group of people who are related by blood or marriage. (noun)
Family tree: A drawing that shows the names of all family members over generations and how they are related to each other. (noun)
Father: A male parent. (noun)
Father-in-law: The father of your husband or wife. (noun)
Female: Relating to women or girls. (adjective)
Fiancé: The man to whom a woman is engaged. (noun)
Fiancée: The woman to whom a man is engaged. (noun)
Foster: To take care of someone else’s child for a period of time but without becoming the legal guardian of the child. (verb)
Girl: A female child or a young female person. (noun)
Give birth: To produce a baby from your body. (verb)
Godchild: A child who has godparents. (noun)
Goddaughter: A female godchild. (noun)
Godfather: A man who is responsible to teach a child Christian moral and religious values. (noun)
Godmother: A woman who is responsible to teach a child Christian moral and religious values. (noun)
Godparents: People who are responsible to teach a child Christian moral and religious values. (noun)
Godson: A male godchild. (noun)
Grandchild: The child of your son or daughter. (noun)
Granddaughter: A female grandchild. (noun)
Grandfather: The father of your mother or father (same as grandpa). (noun)
Grandpa: The father of your mother or father (same as grandfather). (noun)
Grandmother: The mother of your mother or father (same as grandma). (noun)
Grandma: The mother of your mother or father (same as grandmother). (noun)
Grandson: A male grandchild. (noun)
Great-grandparent: The mother or father of your grandparent. (noun)
Half-brother: A brother who is the son of either your mother or your father. (noun)
Husband: The man that a woman is married to. (noun)
Labor: The process of childbirth from the start of contractions to delivery. (noun)
Late: No longer alive, to be dead. (adjective)
Male: Relating to men or boys. (adjective)
Man: An adult male person. (noun)
Marry: To become somebody’s husband, wife or life partner. (verb)
Marriage: The legal relationship between two people who are married. (noun)
Married: Having a husband, wife or life partner. (adjective)
Mother: A female parent. (noun)
Mother-in-law: The mother of your husband or wife. (noun)
Mummy: A child’s word for a mother (also mum) (noun)
Nephew: The son of your brother or sister, your husband’s brother or sister, and your wife’s brother or sister. (noun)
Niece: The daughter of your brother or sister, your husband’s brother or sister, and your wife’s brother or sister. (noun)
Old: Having lived for a very long time. (adjective)
Parent: The father or mother of a person. (noun)
Parents-in-law: The parents of your husband or wife. (noun)
Relative: A person connected to you by blood or marriage. (noun)
Raise: To care for and educate a child until adulthood. (verb)
Sister: A girl or woman who has the same parents as you. (noun)
Sibling: A brother or sister of the same parents. (noun)
Son: Someone’s male child. (noun)
Son-in-law: The husband of your daughter/child. (noun)
Spouse: Your husband or wife. (noun)
Stepbrother: The son of your stepparent or the person who is married to your parent. (noun)
Stepfather: The man who is married to your mother but is not your father. (noun)
Stepmother: The woman who is married to your father but is not your mother. (noun)
Stepsister: The daughter of your stepparent or the person who is married to your parent. (noun)
Twin: One of two children who are born to the same mother at the same time. (noun)
Uncle: The brother of your mother or father, or the husband of your aunt. (noun)
Wed: To marry. (verb)
Wedding: A marriage ceremony. (noun)
Widow: A woman whose husband has died and who has not married again. (noun)
Widower: A man whose wife has died and who has not married again. (noun)
Wife: The woman that a man is married to. (noun)
Woman: An adult female person. (noun)
Young: Having lived for only a short time; not fully developed. (adjective)
Families
Learning words that describe family members is must for students who want to master English. The table gives the word for the family member on the left, and a sample sentence using that term on the right. To make it easy to find just the term you want, the family-related words are presented in alphabetical order.
Family-Related Word | Example Sentence |
aunt | My aunt tells me funny stories about my mother's youth. |
brother | My brother is very competitive. |
cousin | My cousin left for college last year. |
daughter | She has one daughter and one son. |
father | My father spent a lot of time on the road for work. |
grandchild | That 90-year-old woman has 20 grandchildren! |
granddaughter / son | His granddaughter gave him a birthday card with a bunny. |
grandfather / mother | Do you remember your grandmothers and grandfathers? |
great-grandchild | She has four great-grandchildren and is very happy to be alive and to have met them all! |
husband | She sometimes argues with her husband, but that's normal in every marriage. |
ex-husband | She had to divorce her ex-husband because he cheated on her. |
in-laws | Many people don't get along with their in-laws. Others are happy to have a new family! |
son-in-law, daughter-in-law | Her daughter-in-law told her to mind her own business. |
mother | Mother knows best, or at least that's what my mother always said. |
niece | His niece works in a shop in Seattle selling eyewear. |
nephew | I have a nephew who lives in town. It's nice to have lunch every once in a while. |
parents | All of us have two biological parents. Some people grow up with adopted parents. |
sister | His sister drove him crazy with her constant complaining about the parents. |
son | Many people say that sons are harder to raise than daughters because they cause more trouble. |
stepfather, stepmother | She gets along wither her stepfather, but she prefers to not call him "Dad." |
stepdaughter, stepson | If you marry him, you'll have two stepdaughters and one stepson. |
twin | It's amazing how similar some twins are. They look, act, and talk alike. |
uncle | My uncle lives in Texas. He's nothing like my father. |
widow | She became a widow 20 years ago and never remarried. |
widower | The widower is very sad because he's all alone now. |
wife | My wife is the most amazing woman in the world because she puts up with me. |
ex-wife | His ex-wife took all his money. |
Marital Relationships
Marriage brings change. Tell students that these words describe the state of relationships:
- Divorced: Jennifer is divorced, but she's happy to be single again.
- Engaged: Helen is engaged to be married next June. She's making plans for the wedding.
- Married: I've been married for over 25 years. I consider myself lucky.
- Separated: In many countries, couples must be separated for more than a year in order to divorce.
- Single: He's a single man living in New York.
- Widowed: Hank became widowed last year. He hasn't been the same since.
Becoming Family
These verbs describe the process of becoming family:
- Get divorced (from): My husband and I got divorced three years ago. Now, we're best friends, but we know our marriage was a mistake.
- Get engaged (to): I got engaged to my wife after just two months of dating.
- Get married (to): We're planning on getting married in May.
- Marry someone: She married Tom 50 years ago today. Happy anniversary!
- Start / end a relationship with someone: I think we should end our relationship. We're not happy with each other.
Family Vocabulary Quiz
Use the context of each sentence to help your students find an appropriate family-related word to fill in the gaps. The answers are provided below.
- My father has a brother and a ______, so that means I have one _____ and one aunt on my father's side of the family.
- Someday, I hope to have a lot of ______. Of course, that means that the children of my children need to have more children!
- After five years of marriage, they decided to get _____ because they couldn't get along with each other.
- Upon her husband's death, she became a _____ and never married again.
- My mother remarried last year. Now, I'm the _____ of my stepfather.
- Peter's _____, but he would like to get married and have children one day.
- We started our ______ in Germany after we had met at an English-language school.
- My _____ looks exactly like me, but I was born 30 minutes before she was.
- He has an excellent relationship with his _____. They still celebrate holidays together with their children despite their divorce.
- I'm ______ to be married in June! I can't wait!
Answers:
- sister / uncle
- great-grandchildren
- divorced
- widow
- stepdaughter or stepson
- single
- relationship
- twin
- ex-wife
- engaged
To continue practicing family-related vocabulary, create a FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS CHART to further your students' knowledge of this important vocabulary.