Warm-up
In this lesson, your tutor will help you go over this topic: Extended Family. First, go over the following vocabulary and expressions with your tutor. Read the word/expression and definition out loud, and your tutor will go over anything you do not understand. Practice creating a sentence or two to make sure you know how to use the word/expression properly.
Vocabulary/ Expressions
| Immediate family | Your immediate family includes your mother, father, sisters, brothers, husband/wife, and children. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Extended family | extended family includes anyone who is related by blood or by marriage in the family. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| …on mom’s side | You can specify which grandparents you mean by saying whose “side” they are on. e.g. My grandmother on my mom’s side lives in the US. |
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| Great-grandparents | Your grandparents’ parents are your great-grandparents. You might also have great-uncles and great-aunts. These are your parents’ aunts and uncles. You can keep adding “great-” for each generation. e.g. My great-great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War. |
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| Related by blood | Your immediate family (except your spouse) is related by blood. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Uncle/Aunt | In English, we usually call someone “aunt” and “uncle” whether they are related by blood or by marriage. In some families, kids also call their parents’ close friends “Aunt” or “Uncle.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Distant relatives | We also count other distant relatives as cousins, e.g. your cousin’s cousin. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Second cousin | A second cousin is one of your parents’ cousins’ children. And a third cousin is one of your grandparents’ cousins’ children. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Second-cousin-once-removed | You can even talk about a “second cousin once removed”, which is a complicated relationship that many English speakers have heard of, but only a few of us understand. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In-laws | Your husband or wife’s family are your in-laws. You call members of your spouse’s family “mother-in-law”, “brother-in-law“, and so on. But that is usually limited only to immediate family. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Conversation
Use the following questions as a guideline to form an interesting conversation with your tutor. Feel free to diverge from these suggestions if anything interesting comes up.
- Who is in your immediate family?
- What are your parents like?
- Do you look more like your mother or your father?
- Are your parents strict? What about your grandparents?
- What do you and your family like to do together?
- Do you get along well with your family?
- Do you like going to family gatherings? Why or why not?
- How often do you see your parents? How about your extended family?
- What is the best and worst thing about your family or extended family?
- How important are strong family ties to you? Are strong family ties more or less important than close friendships?
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