9 Family

English vocabulary - Martin Hunt 2016

9 Family

In this unit you will learn

✵ words for members of the family

✵ how to ask questions about a family

✵ how to talk about your own family

Basics

Look at the family tree below. Do you know the words in bold? Check in a dictionary and write the words in your language.

Test your basics

Look again at the family tree, then write the English words in the spaces below.

Extension

More family

Look again at the family tree in Basics to help you understand these family words.

✵ Your father and your mother are your parents; we normally use the informal words dad for father and [mum/mom] for mother.

✵ Mark is Paul and Lucy’s uncle; Helen is Paul and Lucy’s aunt.

✵ Simon is James and Sarah’s nephew; Tina is James and Sarah’s niece.

✵ Paul and Lucy and Tina and Simon are cousins (same word for male and female).

✵ James is Mark’s brother-in-law; Sarah is Helen’s sister-in-law; William is James and Helen’s father-in-law and Mary is their mother-in-law.

✵ If two children have one parent the same and one different, we use the prefix half, for example, she’s my half-sister; we both have the same mother but we have different fathers.

✵ If a parent remarries, then you might have step relations. Example: My father has remarried so I now have a stepmother.

✵ Mother, father, sister, brother, brother-in-law, daughter, etc. - all these words are types of relation.

Marriage

✵ James and Sarah are married; we use get married for the day of the wedding, for example:

James and Sarah got married ten years ago.

✵ We use the Present Perfect with the verb be to say how long you’ve been married, for example:

William and Mary have been married for 48 years.

✵ If your husband or wife dies, then you are widowed (adj.). If you are a woman, you are a widow, if you are a man, you are a widower. For example:

Are you married? No, I’m widowed.

My uncle’s a widower.

✵ If a marriage breaks up, there’s often a divorce (adjective = divorced); you can use the prefix ex to talk about your previous husband or wife, for example: James has an ex-wife called Charlotte.

✵ If you are not married, then you are single.

Children

✵ We normally use have children to mean ’possession’. For example:

We have three children (possession).

✵ We use have a baby to mean ’give birth’. For example:

She’s having a baby in June (give birth).

✵ When a child has no brothers or sisters, we can say he/she is an only child.

✵ We often talk about older or younger brothers or sisters, for example:

Tina is Simon’s older sister; Mark is Sarah’s younger brother.

✵ We can use the word [favourite/favorite] about a relation you like the most, for example:

Alice is Sarah’s [favourite/favorite] niece.

Questions

✵ Use Have you got any...? to ask about someone’s family.

✵ How many ... have you got? or How many ... do you have? asks about the number.

✵ Is your ... older/younger than you?

✵ Are you married/single/widowed/divorced? (Normally we use Are you married?) (Remember also When did you get married? and How long have you been married?)

✵ We can ask simply Do you like your...? to ask about family likes/dislikes. Who’s your [favourite/favorite] ...? asks about who you like the most.

Examples:

Have you got any children?    Yes, I have./No, I haven’t.

How many children do you have?    I have two (children).

Is your brother older than you?    Yes, he is./No, he isn’t.

Are you married?      Yes, I am./No, I’m not. I’m, single/divorced/widowed.

Do you like your younger sister?    Yes, I do./No, I don’t.

Who’s your [favourite/ favorite] aunt?   Aunt Helen. She’s great!

Practice

Exercise 1 In the word box there are six pairs of relation words, male and female. Find the pairs, then write them in the correct spaces in the box below.

Male

Female

uncle

aunt

Exercise 2 Fill in the missing words in the questions or answers below using the words from the box. Be careful, one word is not used.

1 When did you get married? Three years ago. It was a lovely day!

2 My sister has two children. I have a ... called Sarah, she’s 12 years old, and a called Daniel, who’s 10.

3 My [mum/mom] married again three years ago, and last year she and my stepfather had a boy, he is my ... .

4 Poor Aunt Jane. She was ... last year when her husband died, she still misses him.

5 ’Do you like your ...?’ ’I can’t say. Both my wife’s parents died before I met her.’

6 Even though we were ... five years ago, I’m still good friends with my ... .

7 ’Do you ever want to get married?’ ’No thanks, I want to stay ... - it’s much more fun!’

Exercise 3 Match the questions to the answers.

Now check your answers.

► Exercise 4 (Recordings 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5) Pronunciation practice. Listen and repeat the words on the recording. Use the transcript at the back of the book to help you if necessary.

In use

Reading

Before you start, check you know these words:

scruffy

waste (time)

laugh

joke

horror

Here is a short piece from a novel called Marrying William. In it Kate, who is going to marry William, meets William’s mother (Mrs. Saunders) for the first time.

Reading 1 Read the text and write down what family Mrs. Saunders has.

“I,” said a lady in her fifties, “am William’s mother.”

I shook her hand, feeling terribly scruffy in my jeans and T- shirt.

“Hi,” I said. “My name’s Kate.”

“I know,” said Mrs. Saunders. She didn’t waste any time. “Tell me about yourself, Kate. Tell me about your family.” Oh dear. This could take some time.

“Well, I come from quite a big family, actually. I have eight brothers and sisters. I’m the youngest. After me, they decided to stop, fast!” (Mrs. Saunders did not laugh at my joke, so I carried on.) “Anyway, most of my brothers and sisters are married now. I have, er, twelve nephews and nine nieces... I think. Yes, that’s right, and my brother George and his wife are having their baby next month, so that will be another one. It’s terrible for birthdays, especially for my poor grandmother.” (That’s my [mum’s/mom’s] mother, my [mum/mom] was her only child.) “She has to keep a list to help her remember.”

I looked at the horror in Mrs. Saunders’ face and stopped. She could see William disappearing into this huge family of mine. I decided not to tell her how my father had married again and about my new half-brother who lived in Spain. I didn’t tell her either about my two stepsisters, from my stepfather’s first marriage. And I certainly didn’t tell her about my own ex-husband, who lives in London somewhere.

“What about your family, Mrs. Saunders?” I tried.

“William is an only child,” she said, “like myself. And I have been a widow for sixteen years.”

“Ah,” I said, guiltily. What else could I say?

Reading 2 Look at the statements below and decide if they are true (˅) or false (X), then correct those that are false.

1 Kate’s grandmother is the mother of Kate’s [mum/mom]. ✓

2 Kate is married. X Kate is divorced (she has an ex-husband who’s still alive). She’s getting married to William in the future.

3 Kate’s mother and father are married.

4 Kate’s brother George’s new child will have twenty-one cousins.

5 Mrs. Saunders is a widower.

6 Kate’s brothers and sisters are all older than she is, but her half-brother is younger.

7 Kate’s stepfather has two sisters.

8 William has no father.

9 Kate’s brothers and sisters have had more sons than daughters.

10 Kate’s grandmother has eight grandchildren.

► Listening

Before you start, check you know this word:

insurance

Note: Related by blood means you are from the same family, you’re not related by marriage. For example: Your mother is a blood relation; your mother-in-law or your stepmother are not blood relations.

You will hear a woman being interviewed by a man selling insurance.

Listening 1 Listen and put a / next to any questions below that you hear.

1 Are you married?

2 Have you got any children?

3 Who’s your [favourite/favorite] relation?

4 Is your brother older or younger than you?

5 What about your parents, are they still alive?

Listening 2 Listen again and fill in the form with any details about the woman’s family.

Name

Marion Jacobs

Marital status*

Single

Children


Parents


Brothers


Sisters


* married, divorced, widowed or single

Now check your answers.

Recap

Here are the words we learned in this unit. Do you know them all? Write down the translations if you need to.

Family

dad (informal) father (formal)  [mum/mom] (informal)

mother (formal) son    daughter

brother   sister   grandfather

grandmother  grandson   granddaughter

uncle   aunt    cousin

nephew   niece   wife

husband  parents   brother-in-law

sister-in-law  half-sister  stepmother

relation

Marriage

be married  get married  married

widowed   widower   widow

divorced   single   ex-husband/wife

Children

have children (possession) older

only child

have a baby (give birth) younger

Questions

Have you got any ...?

How many ... have you got?

Do you have any... ?

How many ... do you have?

Is your ... older/younger than you?

(Also: are you single/widowed/divorced?)

Are you married?

Do you like your ...?

Who’s your [favourite/ favorite] ...?

What to do next

✵ Describe your family in English.

✵ Ask someone about their family in English.

✵ Can you describe any famous families in books? Politics? Music?

Why not try these units next?

✵ Body (1) and (2) • Clothes (1) and (2) • People and jobs

Answer key for this unit

Test your basics

1 grandfather

3 husband

5 father

7 brother

9 daughter

11 son

2 grandmother

4 wife

6 mother

8 sister

10 granddaughter

12 grandson

Exercise 1

Male

Female

uncle

nephew

son

husband

widower

cousin

aunt

niece

daughter

wife

widow

cousin

(Note: cousin is the same for male and female.)

Exercise 2

1 When did you get married? Three years ago. It was a lovely day!

2 My sister has two children. I have a niece called Sarah, she’s 12 years old, and a nephew called Daniel, who’s 10.

3 My [mum/mom] married again three years ago, and last year she and my stepfather had a boy, he is my half-brother.

4 Poor Aunt Jane. She was widowed last year when her husband died, she still misses him.

5 ’Do you like your mother-in-law? ’I can’t say. Both my wife’s parents died before I met her.’

6 Even though we were divorced five years ago, I’m still good friends with my ex-wife.

7 ’Do you ever want to get married?’ ’No thanks, I want to stay single - it’s much more fun!’

(Note: The word stepbrother is not used.)

Exercise 3

1 Have you got any cousins?

2 Is your sister older than you?

3 How many brothers and and sisters have you got?

4 Are you married?

5 Do you like your brother?

6 Who’s your [favourite/ favorite] relation?

d Yes, I have. I have two cousins.

b No, she isn’t. She’s two years younger.

e I’ve got one brother and one sister.

a No, I’m not. I’m single.

f No, I don’t really like him, although I do like my sister.

c My Aunt Polly. She’s great. She’s so much fun.

Reading

Reading 1 Mrs. Saunders only has her son, William (she’s widowed, and she and William are both only children).

Reading 2

1 Kate’s grandmother is the mother of Kate’s [mum/mom]. ✓

2 Kate is married. X Kate is divorced (she had an ex-husband who’s still alive). She’s getting married to William in the future.

3 Kate’s mother and father are married. X Kate’s mother and father are divorced.

4 Kate’s brother George’s new child will have twenty-one cousins. ✓ (Kate has twelve nephews and nine nieces; they are all cousins.)

5 Mrs. Saunders is a widower. X Mrs. Saunders is a widow.

6 Kate’s brothers and sisters are all older than she is, but her half-brother is younger. ✓

7 Kate’s stepfather has two sisters. X Kate’s stepfather has two daughters (they’re Kate’s stepsisters).

8 William has no father. ✓ (Mrs. Saunders is widowed.)

9 Kate’s brothers and sisters have had more sons than daughters. ✓ (Kate has twelve nephews - boys - and only nine nieces - girls.)

10 Kate’s grandmother has eight grandchildren. X Kate’s grandmother has nine grandchildren (eight brothers and sisters and Kate herself).

Listening

Listening 1

1 Are you married?

2 Have you got any children?

3 Who’s your [favourite/favorite] relation?

4 Is your brother older or younger than you?

5 What about your parents, are they still alive?

Listening 2

Name

Marion Jacobs

Marital status

single

Children

no children

Parents

mother (widow — father is dead)

Brothers

one (half-brother)

Sisters

two