Family Words
Learn essential English words for family members. An A1 vocabulary lesson with practice.
These are the 20 family words you will use in almost every conversation about your life. Learn each word, read the example, then meet all twenty again in a short story at the end.
20 words to learn
The 20 words
/ˈfæm.ə.li/
A family is a group of people who live together or are close to you, like your mother, father and children.
My family is not big, but we see each other every week.
/ˈpeə.rənt/
Your parent is your mother or your father.
Both of my parents work at the same school.
/ˈmʌð.ər/
A mother is a woman who has a child.
My mother makes bread every Friday morning.
/ˈfɑː.ðər/
A father is a man who has a child.
My father drives me to school in his old car.
/ˈsɪs.tər/
Your sister is a girl or woman with the same mother and father as you.
My sister is two years older than me.
/ˈbrʌð.ər/
Your brother is a boy or man with the same mother and father as you.
My brother plays football every Saturday.
/sʌn/
Someone’s son is their boy child.
Mrs Ali has one son and two daughters.
/ˈdɔː.tər/
Someone’s daughter is their girl child.
Their daughter is a doctor in the city.
/tʃaɪld/
A child is a young person. It is also the son or daughter of a mother and father.
Every child in the class has a book.
/ˈbeɪ.bi/
A baby is a very young child who cannot walk or talk yet.
The baby sleeps for many hours every day.
/ˈɡræn.mʌð.ər/
Your grandmother is the mother of your mother or father.
My grandmother tells us stories about her village.
/ˈɡræn.fɑː.ðər/
Your grandfather is the father of your mother or father.
My grandfather is eighty years old, but he still walks every day.
/ɑːnt/
Your aunt is the sister of your mother or father.
My aunt lives in the house next to ours.
/ˈʌŋ.kəl/
Your uncle is the brother of your mother or father.
My uncle works in a shop near the market.
/ˈkʌz.ən/
Your cousin is the child of your aunt and uncle.
My cousin and I were born in the same year.
/ˈhʌz.bənd/
A woman’s husband is the man she is married to.
Her husband cooks dinner on Sundays.
/waɪf/
A man’s wife is the woman he is married to.
His wife is a teacher at my school.
/ˈmær.id/
When two people are married, they are husband and wife.
My sister got married last summer.
/jʌŋ/
Young means not old. A baby is very young.
My father was very young when he started work.
/təˈɡeð.ər/
When people are together, they are in the same place.
We eat lunch together every Sunday.
Now read the story
Story · all 20 words
Fifteen Chairs
Every Sunday, my family goes to my grandmother’s house for lunch.
My grandmother is eighty-one years old. She still cooks everything herself, and she will not let anyone help. My grandfather sits by the window with his newspaper. He does not say much, but he smiles at every person who comes through the door.
My parents always arrive first. My mother goes straight to the kitchen. My father carries chairs in from the garden, because there are never enough chairs.
At twelve o’clock the others come. My uncle Sami arrives with his wife, my aunt Nadia. They have been married for twenty-two years. Their son Karim is my cousin and my best friend. He is three months younger than me, and he never lets me forget it.
My sister Lina comes with her baby. His name is Yusuf and he is nine months old. Everybody wants to hold him. My brother Ali says the baby has our father’s face, and my mother laughs and says yes, the same nose exactly.
My aunt also has a daughter. She is a nurse in another city, so she cannot come every week. When she does come, my grandmother cooks two extra dishes and talks about it for days afterwards. She says a child is never too old to visit their parents.
At one o’clock we sit down together. Today there are fifteen people and fourteen chairs, so Karim sits on a box.
My grandfather says the same thing every Sunday. He looks at the table and says, “A small house and a big family. That is a good life.”
After lunch the children run into the garden. The adults drink tea. My grandmother falls asleep in her chair, and nobody wakes her.
One day I will have a husband and children of my own. I hope we will sit together on Sundays, in a small room, with not enough chairs.
Now practise with the questions below.
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