All in the Family

When talking about your family in English, you often get confused. On the one hand, you tend to describe your whole entire family as men. Even though these are modern times we live in and this could be possible, it’s probably not the case. In situations where you have family members of both sexes, you have to either specify or use a neutral term.

Your mother and your father are NOT your fathers, they are your parents.

Your son and your daughter are NOT your sons, they are your children[1].

The same occurs with grandparents and grandchildren.

Your sister and your brother are NOT your brothers, they are your siblings.

You have to call your uncle and aunt, uncle and aunt , NOT uncles.

You have to call your nephew and niece, nephew and niece, NOT nephews.

On the other hand, you shouldn’t call your relatives[2] parents. As you know, your parents are your mother and father. Your relatives are any of your extended family members (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.).

Nor should you call your relationships[3] relations[4]. Relations is another way of saying relatives. Relationships describe the way people are connected to each other, whether they are with family, friends, couples or colleagues.

I have a close relationship with my grandmother.

In my experience, long distance relationships don’t work.

Let’s end with a relative riddle for you:

Brothers and sisters have I none, but this man's father is my son.

Who is this man? The answer is in the comments below.

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[1] remember children is the irregular plural form of child, [2] parientes, [3] relaciones, [4] parientes