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Hello! In this video we will learn the family members in Spanish. For that, we will complete a family tree.
We have included simple explanations, images, audios and examples so that you can talk about your family in Spanish. Let's begin ...
What are the most common members of a family?
The most common families are nuclear families and extended families. Depending on the type of family,
you can find a few family members or many of them, but it all starts from a nuclear family so we will start from there ...
Well, the first members of the family you must learn are los padres (the parents), ie mama (mom) and papa (dad), or mother and father being more formal.
The mark on the vowel "a" is called tilde and serves to identify where the stress is put on the word. If they are married they would be esposo (husband) and esposa (wife).
Couples often have children . In this family tree, this couple has un hijo (a son) and una hija (a daughter). The relationship between the two is that of hermanos (siblings)
ie hermano (brother) and Hermana (sister). Another common word for children in Spanish is niños. Un niño would be a boy and una niña would be a girl.
It's time to add some more relatives and make this an extended family. Generally children have abuelos (grandparents) - the parents of their parents.
In Spanish it would be as simple as saying abuelo (grandfather) and abuela (grandmother). Now, for the grandparents, these children are nietos (grandchildren), in this case un nieto (a grandson) and una nieta (a granddaughter).
Other important relatives are the siblings of the parents , ie , the los tíos (uncles and aunts) in relation to children. We use the words tío (uncle) and tía (aunt)
to refer only to one of them. An uncle’s child would be un primo (a cousin). For parents, their children’s cousins are sobrinos (nephews) and sobrinas (nieces)
How to talk about the family in Spanish?
Well, this is the interesting part. First the members of a family are Spanish nouns so, except for mamá and papá, they change gender from masculine to female, as tío and tía.
They also change to plural, eg tío -> tíos.
It is common to establish a relationship between family and oneself or others. For that we use possessive adjectives like
“mi, tu, su, nuestros y sus” (my, your, his, our and their). That way we can say “Mi mamá”, “Su tío”, “Nuestros padres”, etc.
The most common verbs to talk about the family are Tener (to have) and Ser (to be). Ser is used in its forms "Es" and "Son" in presentations or to describe someone with adjectives, eg
Él es mi abuelo (He is my grandfather), Su mamá es bonita (Her mom is beautiful) . Tener is used to talk about people in your family as in Tengo dos hermanos (I have two brothers)
An example of how to talk about your family in Spanish...
This is my family. My mom’s name is Anabel and my dad’s name is Marcos. I have two sisters. They are friendly. My mom is smart and my dad is strict.
We have two uncles, an aunt and two cousins. One of my cousins (girl) is mischievous and the other (boy) is playful. It's a small family, but we all get along great.