Talking About Family Members in Spanish

Do you know how to say the most common family members in Spanish? There are so many relatives and we could simply write a long list with all of them, but making list of words is not how you learn a language. Instead, this lesson will teach you the ones you will use the most in real situations, and more importantly, the grammar structures and verbs needed to make meaningful sentences with family members. “¡Comencemos!”

Common family members in Spanish and how to describe them — Los miembros de la familia en español

Introductory video: Common Family members in Spanish

Let’s begin by watching a video showing a list of family members in Spanish and how they should be written and pronounced. This video teaches words such as Mamá (mom) and Abuelito (grandpa) and explains some key things about the verbs SER (to be) and TENER (to have) and the right way to use them to describe family members, which is the central topic of our next lesson. Try to stick until the end of the video as it will definitely help you understand all the examples presented in the rest of the lesson.

Talking about family members in Spanish

Family relationships in Spanish and jobs

First, in order to talk about family relationships in Spanish, we will use possessive adjectives. They are words like MI (my) and SU (your) that can be used as in “Mi mamá”(my mother). The possessive adjective to use must agree in number and gender with the family member. For instance, to talk about “my brother” I should say “Mi hermano”, but if I mean to say “my brothers” then I should use MIS instead of MI as in “Mis hermanos”. As you can see, possessive adjectives are really important to talk about relationships between family members in Spanish.

The way to call some family members in Spanish

Some family members can be called in two ways such as “Mamá”/”Madre” and “Papá”/”Padre”. “Mamá” and “Papá” are way more casual. Notice that these two words need tilde in the last vowel, else they will mean something else. The word “PADRES”, which is also the plural form of father in Spanish, will be used meaning “parents”. Also, there is a cute way to call grandparents by adding the suffix -ITO at the end as in “Abuelito” (grandpa) and “Abuelita”(grandma). This termination can also be added to “Mamá” and “Papá” to say “Mamita” and “Papito”.

The vocabulary for family members in Spanish through a family tree

How to describe family members in Spanish and say what they do

The easiest way to describe things and even family members in Spanish is by using the irregular verb SER. Basically, SER can be used as ES for one person, e.g. “Mi papá es…” (My dad is…) and SON for several relatives as in “Mis tíos son…” (My uncles are…). After the verb SER, we need to place an adjective such as “trabajador” (hard-working) or “amable” (kind), or even job titles and occupations like “Ingeniero” (Engineer). Moreover, you can use adverbs like “MUY” (very) to make adjectives stronger.

The chart below contains sentences with a list of common family members in Spanish. Here, you will see both possessive adjectives to express family relationships and SER + Spanish adjectives to describe relatives the easy way. Click on Play to listen to the sentences.

How to form sentences using SER and adjectives to describe family members

Su esposo es ingeniero

Her husband is an engineer

Mi esposa es ama de casa

My wife is a housewife

Sus padres son estrictos

Her/His/Their parents are strict

Madre (formal)/Mamá(informal) – Mi mamá es muy inteligente

My mom is very intelligent

Padre (formal)/ Papá(informal) – Su papá es muy práctico

His/Her father is very practical

Nuestra hija es linda

Our daughter is beautiful

Nuestro hijo es creativo

Our son is creative

Su hermano es doctor

Her/His brother is a doctor

Su hermana es enfermera

Her sister is a nurse

Nuestros abuelos están casados

Our grandparents are married

Abuelo / abuelito – Mi abuelo es un anciano my enérgico.

Grandpather/grandpa – My grandfather is an energetic old man

Abuela / abuelita – Mi abuela es muy cariñosa

Grandmother/grandma – My grandmother is very affectionate

Sus nietos son traviesos

Her grandchildren are naughty

Su nieto es apenas un bebe

His grandchildren is still a baby

Mi nieta es muy bonita

My granddauther is very beautiful

Mis tíos son muy divertidos.

My uncles and aunts are very fun

Hijos/Niños – Los hijos de María son adorables

Maria’s children are adorable

Nuestra madrastra es buena.

Our step-mother is good

Mi padrastro es muy amable.

My step-father is very kind

Mi suegra es muy enojada

My mother in law is angry

Introducing family members in Spanish

Sometimes you will also need to introduce a relative in Spanish. To do so, you can use this sentence structure:

Relative + SE LLAMA + Name as in “Mi mamá se llama Teresa”

You can also refer to someone else’s relatives by using SER and possessive adjectives to state the relationship as in SU HIJA (her daughter) . Here are some examples of sentences introducing family members in Spanish

Mi tía se llama Ana

My aunt’s name is Ana

Su suegro se llama Juan

My father-in-law’s name is Juan

Ella es mi cuñada

She is my sister-in-law

Él es nuestro cuñado

He is our brother-in-law

Él es su yerno

He is her son-in-law

Ella es su nuera

She is her daugther-in-law

Sharing information about your relatives in Spanish

In addition to describing your relatives and introducing them to other people, you can also share information about them such as the place where they live, their age, how many children they have and so on. Below there is a last group of sentences with family members in Spanish sharing personal information. Make sure to practice with the quiz at the end of the lesson once you check all the examples. We hope you find the examples provided in the lesson very useful. ¡Hasta pronto!