English · Chapter 5 · Lesson 21 · Themed review
Family
The people closest to you. You have met all of these already - here they are together.
Practise this lesson
19-word session
A quick mix of exercises - recognise, recall, type and build each word. Miss one and it comes back round until it sticks.
Worth knowing
Some family words change in a strange way when there is more than one
Most English words add s when there is more than one. One friend, two friends. One sister, two sisters.
A few old words do something different. They change the sound inside the word.
- one man, two
- one woman, two
- one child, two
There are only about seven words like this in all of English. You met three of them today. The others are foot, tooth, mouse and goose.
Be careful with . The spelling changes only one letter, but the sound changes a lot. Woman sounds like WU-man. Women sounds like WIH-min.
English has no short word for brother and sister
In many languages there is one word for your brothers and sisters together. English has the word siblings, but almost nobody says it. It sounds like a form or a school report.
People say . "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" is the normal question.
kid and child
is the standard word. means the same thing but is more relaxed and friendly. You can say it to friends. Do not write it in a formal letter.
The plural of kid is easy: kids. The plural of child is the strange one: children.
marry
is a verb. You marry a person. You do not marry with a person, and you do not marry to a person.
- She married my brother.
But the adjective takes to:
- She is my brother.
Both sentences are correct. They just use different words after the verb, and this is something you have to learn word by word.
Words in this theme
family/ˈfæməli/A group of people who are related, such as parents and their children.
mother/ˈmʌðə/A woman who has a child; your female parent.
father/ˈfɑːðə/A man who has a child; a male parent.
parent/ˈpeə(r)(ə)nt/A person's mother or father.
son/sʌn/A boy or man who is someone's child.
daughter/ˈdɔːtə/A girl or woman who is someone's child.
child/tʃaɪld/A young person who is not yet grown up, or someone's son or daughter.
brother/ˈbrʌðə/A boy or man who has the same parents as you.
sister/ˈsɪstə/A girl or woman who has the same parents as you.
husband/ˈhʌzbənd/The man a woman is married to.
wife/waɪf/The woman a man is married to.
baby/ˈbeɪbi/A very young child who has just been born or is only a few months old.
couple/ˈkʌpl/Two people who are together, or a small number of things, usually two.
marry/ˈmæri/To become someone's husband or wife.
woman/ˈwʊmən/An adult female person.
boy/bɔɪ/A male child, or a young male person.
girl/ɡɜːl/A female child, or a young female person.
kid/kɪd/A child, in an easy and friendly way of speaking.
friend/frend/A person you know well and like, who is not in your family.