La Familia y Parentesco

UNIDAD 5 LA FAMILIA Y PARENTESCO

5.1 Introducción
5.2 Objetivos
5.3 Los miembros de la familia y las relaciones de parentesco
5.3.1 Los determinantes posesivos
5.3.2 Los nombres y apellidos españoles
5.3.2 El verbo «estar» y el estado civil
5.3.2 Costumbres españolas
5.3.4.1 Los nombres y sus abreviaciones
5.3.4.2 La familia española en la actualidad
5.4 Resumen
5.5 Glosario
5.6 Soluciones

5.1 INTRODUCCIÓN (INTRODUCTION)

Dear learner, in the first block you became familiar with the first useful tools to
introduce yourself in Spanish and to give basic information related to nationalities,
profession and your immediate surroundings. In this second block that you are
starting now, Familia y entorno (Family and Surroundings), you will get deeper into
the content by broadening your vocabulary about family and its surroundings, not
only from linguistic and grammatical points of view, but also from a cultural
perspective.

Before you start working on this unidad ‘family and family relationship’ (la familia y
parentesco), revise the major points and grammar contents from the previous block,
since they will come in handy and they will serve as a good basis to start building
upon.

One aspect that you need to bear in mind is that, like in India, family is also very
important in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries and they talk a lot about it, so it
is quite frequent to find yourself talking to a Spanish native and the topic of the
family (la familia) coming into conversation. Be ready for that!

Spanish families often gather together for celebrations and other activities, like
Christmas (Navidad) and birthdays (cumpleaños). It is also common to spend Sundays
as family days with close relatives meeting usually for a big Sunday lunch. You
might find out some common elements with your culture, and also some particular
ones that differ from the reality around you. Think about these points while you
study this unidad. By comparing and looking for these similarities and differences
you will get a better insight into both, your culture and the Spanish one.

5.2 OBJETIVOS (OBJECTIVES)

At the end of the unidad, you should be able to:
describe your family and ask about someone’s family;
use possessive pronouns for the first, second and third person singular (Yo, Tú,
Él); 67
Familia y el entorno use the verb estar to talk about marital status; and
know about Spanish traditions.

5.3 LOS MIEMBROS DE LA FAMILIA Y LAS

RELACIONES DE PARENTESCO (FAMILY
MEMBERS AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS)
Actividad 1

OBSERVAR. Are you ready for a quick warm up while jumping directly into the
topic? Good! To start with, and without the help of any dictionary, look at the
following picture and read the following text about Enrique’s family, where the
family relationships are described. Then, complete the family tree. Read the text as
many times as you need and observe the picture carefully. Pay attention and be a
good observer. The picture and the words in bold with help you through.

Esta es la familia de Enrique. Su madre se llama Elena y su padre Miguel. Enrique

tiene un hermano, Guillermo, y una hermana, Carmen. El marido de Carmen
se llama Juan. Carmen y Juan tienen dos hijos. Su hijo mayor se llama Alberto. Su
hija pequeña se llama Sara. Alberto y Sara son sobrinos de Enrique. Enrique
también está casado. Su mujer se llama María. Enrique y María tienen una hija.
Se llama Natalia. Natalia, Alberto y Sara son primos y nietos de Elena y Miguel.
Elena y Miguel son los abuelos de Alberto, Sara y Natalia. Guillermo, el hermano
de Enrique, está soltero y no tiene hijos.

We are sure that you already deduced the meaning of some of the new words in
bold describing family members. Good for you if you have guessed correctly the
meaning of all of them! You can double-check them in the glossary section at the
end of this unindad.

Miguel

 

María Enrique

Natalia
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 La Familia y Parentesco
Esposo is another word for marido, as well as esposa is another word for mujer.

In Latin America, they use papá and mamá instead of padre y madre.

Actividad 2

Now that you are already familiar with the basic vocabulary related to family and
family relationships, find out the meaning of the underlined words?
a) Enrique es cuñado de Juan. / María es cuñada de Guillermo.
b) Elena es suegra de Juan. / Miguel es suegro de Juan. / Elena y Miguel son
suegros de Juan.
c) Juan es yerno de Elena y Miguel. / María es nuera de Elena y Miguel.

As you might have observed in the previous text about Enrique’s family, the
masculine form is always used for the plural if one of the members is a male:

primos (prima + primo), padres (padre + madre), abuelos (abuela + abuelo), hermanos
(hermano + hermana), sobrinos (sobrina + sobrino)

Let’s now start building up sentences that will help you when describing families.
Look at the following sentences again about Enrique’s family:
o Enrique es hijo de Miguel y Elena. (Enrique is Miguel and Elena’s son)
o Miguel y Elena son padres de Enrique. (Miguel and Elena are Enrique’s parents)
o Alberto es primo de Natalia. (Alberto is Natalia’s cousin)
As you can observe, the structure used in Spanish to talk about familyy
relationships is as follows: VERB SER + FAMILY RELATIONSHIP +
DE

Actividad 3

PRACTICAR. Following the structure in the previous sentences, complete the

following sentences with the appropriate information about Enrique’s family:
a) Miguel es _______ de Elena.
b) Juan es ______ de Alberto.
c) Alberto ____ hijo ____ Carmen.
d) Natalia _____ nieta de Elena y Miguel.
e) María es _____ de Natalia.
f) Alberto y Sara son ______ de Carmen y Juan.
g) Carmen es _____ de Enrique.
h) Natalia ____ _______ ______ Alberto y Sara.
i) Miguel y Elena ______ _______ ______ Alberto, Sara y Natalia.
j) Guillermo ______ _____ _______ Sara.
Now that you have become familiar with words and sentences to describe a family,
let’s work on your listening skills in the following activity. 69
Familia y el entorno Actividad 4

[Track 28] You will hear Sofía describing her family. You can see her family tree
below, where some of her relatives’ names have been given. Observe, first, the
family tree carefully and, with the help of the vocabulary learnt so far in this unidad,
think of the words that you might expect while listening to the audio. This will help
you to recognise words and scan information when you play the audio. Listen to
Sofía and write the names of the other relatives in the appropriate boxes given in
the family tree.

Marcos

 


Cristóbal Josefina

 
Raúl  Sofía

 

5.3.2 Los determinantes posesivos (Possessive pronouns)

Look at the transcribed text from the previous exercise and read Sofia’s description
about her family. Observe the underlined words and the table below. They are called
possessive pronouns, like in English ‘my, your...’.
- En mi familia somos mi madre, mi padre, mis dos hermanos y yo.
- ¿Cómo se llaman tus padres?
- Mi padre se llama Cristóbal y mi madre Josefina.
- ¿Tienes hermanos?
- Sí, tengo dos hermanos. Mi hermano mayor se llama Raúl; luego estoy yo, que me llamo
Sofía, y después mi hermano pequeño, que se llama Sergio.
- Y tus abuelos, ¿cómo se llaman?
- Mi abuelo Marcos y mi abuela Teresa. Estos son los padres de mi madre.
- ¿Y cómo se llaman los padres de tu padre?
- El padre de mi padre se llama Joaquín y la madre Luisa. [Pausa] Tengo también una tía.
- ¿Cómo se llama tu tía?
- Silvia.
- ¿Y de quién es hermana?
- Es la hermana de mi madre. Y tengo dos sobrinos.
- ¿Cómo se llaman?
- Rubén y Óscar.
- ¿Y son hijos de quién?
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- De mi hermano Raúl. La Familia y Parentesco

- ¿Y cómo se llama la mujer de tu hermano?

- Clara. Se llama Clara.
SIGULAR PLURAL
MASCULINO FEMENINO MASCULINO FEMENINO
YO mi padre mi madre mis hermanos mis hermanas
(my father) (my mother) (my brothers/siblings) (my sisters)
TÚ tu padre tu madre tus hermanos tus hermanas
(your father) (your mother) (your brothers/siblings) (your sisters)
ÉL/ su padre su madre sus hermanos sus hermanas
ELLA/ (his/her father) (his/her mother) (his/her brothers/ (his/her sisters)
USTED siblings)

Possessive pronouns are used to show possession. Different forms apply for
the different personal pronouns as you can see in the table above. In Spanish, personal
pronouns agree with the number of things possessed, i.e., if there is only one thing
possessed, then we use the singular form, whereas if there are more than one thing
possessed, we use the plural form. Look at the following sentences:

§ Mi tía se llama Silvia (my aunt’s name is Silvia). There is only one aunt, so we use
the possessive pronoun in the singular form (Mi).
§ Mis sobrinos se llaman Rubén y Óscar (my nephews’ names are Rubén and Óscar).
Even if the owner is one person (Yo), there is more than one nephew. Therefore,
we need to use the possessive pronoun in the plural form (Mis).

Mi hijo y mi hija = mis hijos

Tu padre y tu madre = tus padres
Su hermano y su hermana = sus hermanos

Also observe that there is neither masculine nor feminine form for the possessive
pronouns in the YO, TÚ, EL/ELLA/USTED forms:
§ Mi padre se llama Esteban y mi madre se llama Estela.
§ ¿Cómo se llama tu hermano? / ¿Cómo se llama tu hermana?
Actividad 5

Choose the right form of the possessive pronoun in the following sentences:

a) Estos son mi/mis hermanos. Se llaman Felipe y Jaime.

b) Laura es española pero su/sus padre es alemán.
c) Tu/tus padres son muy jóvenes.
d) Mi/mis madre se llama Pilar y es enfermera.
e) Javier vive en España, pero su/sus abuelos viven en Colombia

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Familia y el entorno Actividad 6
Complete the following sentences and dialogues with the appropriate possessive
pronoun from the ones given in the box. Some pronouns need to be used more
than once:

su tus (x2) tu mi (x3) mis (x2) sus

a) - Ana, ¿cómo se llama _____ hermana?
- ______ hermana se llama Esther.
- Pierre, ¿de dónde eres?
- Yo soy francés pero ______ padres son italianos, de Roma.
b) - Susana, ¿a qué se dedican ____ primos?
- ______ prima Marta es ingeniera y ______ hermano es médico.
c) - Luis, ¿vives con _____ padres?
- No, ya no vivo con _____ padres. Vivo con _____ novia.
d) - ¿Los hermanos de Raquel viven también en el País Vasco?
- Sí, _____ hermanos viven en Bilbao.
Actividad 7

[Track 29] Look at the following family tree (árbol genealógico). Listen and respond

to the question given in the box below.

Manuel Francisca


Rocío Julio



Esteban Alberto Isabel







Sara Ruth Luis Roberto

A B V

¿Quién habla?

¿Dónde vive?

¿Cuántos años tiene?

5.3.2 Los nombres y apellidos españoles (Spanish Names and

Surnames)
Spanish people are identified by name(s) (nombre(s)) and surnames (apellidos). They
have at least one name but it is also possible (and common) to have more than one,
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followed by two surnames, first surname (primer apellido) and second surname (segundo La Familia y Parentesco
apellido). The concept of middle name does not exist in Spanish-speaking countries.
Look at the following national identity card (DNI –documento nacional de identidad)
from Spain and Chile (in South America, it is known as cédula de indentidad):

With regard to the surnames, the first one is the father’s first surname and the
second one is the mother’s first surname. You will see it clearly in the following
family tree (árbol genealógico):

Marcelo García Daniela Marco Suárez Elena Espinosa

Peña Sánchez Gil Marqués Blasco

‚ ‚
‚

Cristóbal García Josefina García

‚
Jaime Suárez Ignacio Suárez
Sánchez Sánchez Espinosa Espinosa

‚ ‚
‚

Celia Torrejón Raúl Suárez Clara Suárez Marta Suárez

Montes García García García

‚ ‚
Eugenia Suárez Marcela Suárez
Torrejón Torrejón

Remember that Spanish people keep both their names and surnames, from
birth to death. Unlike it happens in India, Spanish people don’t change them when
they get married. Actually, for them, the idea of changing their identity feels quite
odd.

5.3.3 El verbo «estar» y el estado civil (Verb Estar and marital status)
Marital status in Spanish is introduced, usually, by the verb estar. Estar means ‘to be’,
like the verb ser that you learnt in the previous unit, and, also like ser, this is an
irregular verb.
ESTAR

Yo estoy soltero/a: single

Tú estás casado/a: married
Él/Ella/Usted está separado/a: separated
Nosotros/as estamos divorciado/a: divorced
Vosotros/as estáis viudo/a: widower/widow
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes están
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Familia y el entorno
Although estar is the most commonly used verb, marital status can also be
stated by using ser, mostly with soltero/a and viudo/a, with no difference in the
meaning.
Note the difference between the following two expressions:
- Separado/a: when, after being married, a person stops living together but the
marriage has not legally been terminated.
- Divorciado/a: a person that has terminated the marriage legally.

Actividad 8

Complete the following sentences and dialogues with the appropriate form of the
verb estar:
a) Mario y yo no _________ casados pero vivimos juntos.
b) - ¿Vosotras________ casadas?
- No, _______ solteras.
c) - ¿Julia _________ viuda?
- No, su marido vive.
d) - Tú ________ divorciada, ¿verdad?
- No, _______ separada.
e) - ¿Ustedes _________ casados?
f) Guillermo _________ soltero y vive muy bien.
Now, as a reinforcement and summarizing exercise, let’s revise the contents
practiced so far. Go back to the previous block if you consider that you need to
revise the vocabulary and verbs used to ask for or to give personal information.

Actividad 9

[Track 30] Choose the right option to complete the following text about Nuria’ss
family. Then listen to the audio and check your answers:

La familia de Nuria (Nuria’s family)

(a)________ (Me llamas/Me llamo/Mi llamo) Nuria. En mi familia somos cuatro:
mi padre, mi madre, mi hermano y yo. Mi padre (b) ________ (llamas/llama/se
llama) Víctor. (c)________ (es/ser/se) médico y trabaja en un hospital. Mi madre
(d) __________ (se llama/nos llama/llama) Lucía y trabaja en un instituto. Es (e)
____________ (profesor/profesora/profesión) de matemáticas. Raúl, (f) __________
(mi/mis/yo) hermano, es estudiante en la universidad.
El hermano de mi padre, mi (g)________ (primo/tío/sobrino) Sebastián, (h)_______
(estoy/estás/está) casado. (i) ________ (tu/su/sus) mujer se llama Estrella. Mis
tíos Sebastián y Estrella (j) ________ (tenéis/tiene/tienen) dos hijas, Gloria y Elvira.
Son mis (k) ________ (hermanas/primos/primas).
Mi madre tiene una hermana, mi (l) __________ (tía, prima, abuela) Carmen. Ella no
(m) _____ (tiene/tienes/tenéis) marido. Es (n)______ (casada/soltera/separada).
Mi familia y yo (o) ___________ (viven/vivo/vivimos) en Madrid, la capital de España.
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5.3.4 Costumbres españolas (Spanish traditions) La Familia y Parentesco

5.3.4.1 Los nombres y sus abreviaciones (Names and their Abbreviations)

In Spanish families it is common to change, abbreviate or use diminutive suffixes

when referring to relatives, mostly children, often as an affectionate form. These
are some of the examples:

Name Affectionate/short form

Antonia Toñi
Antonio Toño
Consuelo Chelo
Dolores Lola/Loles
Enrique Quique
Francisco Paco
Ignacio Nacho
José Pepe
Josefa Pepa
Manuel Manolo
María Carmen Mamen
María Isabel Maribel
María Luisa Marisa
María Teresa Maite
Mercedes Merche
Milagros Mila
Rosario Charo

In traditional families, it is also common to give the daughter the same name as
that of the mother and the son the same name as that of the father. In such cases,
they usually use the diminutive form when speaking about/to to their children. For
example, if the father’s name is Carlos, the son’s name might also be Carlos but
relatives will call him Carlitos. Diminutive forms in Spanish are often formed with -
ito for the masculine name and -ita for the feminine: Juan’! Juanito; Ricardo’!
Ricardito; Juana’! Juanita; Susana’! Susanita, Elena’! Elenita, and so on.
5.3.4.2 La familia española en la actualidad (The Spanish family today)

The most common family model in Spain is the traditional one, formed by a father,
a mother and the children (one or more). This situation counts for 34.9%. Among
them, the biggest group is formed by couples with only one child (16.4%), followed
by couples with two children (15.3%) and, lastly, couples with three or more children
(3.2%). There is also a growing number of single-parent families (9.4%), most of
them formed by a single mother.

86.3% of the couples living together are married, 99.3% of them are heterosexual
couples and 0.7% homosexual. Homosexual marriages in Spain are legally
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Familia y el entorno
recognised since 2005, upon approval by the Spanish Congress (el Congreso de los
Diputados).

There is also a growing number of people living alone (14.3% under 65) and also
couples without any children (21.6%).

One out of every three young people (aged between 25 to 34, approx. 6 million)
still lives with their parents. The main reason is the difficulty to afford a life on
their own.

When people get married it is uncommon that they stay and live with their parents.
They move out of the family house. However, relationships are close amongst
close relatives, i.e. grandparents, parents and siblings. The family is important for
Spanish people and, as a general rule, they prefer to live near each other and they
usually gather together for celebrations like birthdays, weddings, Christmas and
other family events.
Source: Adopted text. Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE)

5.4 RESUMEN (LET’S SUM UP)

In this unidad, you have become familiar with vocabulary, expressions and sentences
used to describe families, a very common topic both in Indian and Spanish cultures.
We have also learnt to use possessive pronouns (mi, tu, su) and the verb estar to state
the marital status of a person. Lastly, we have read about some traditions from the
Spanish-speaking countries with regard to the use of names, surnames and family
life. With all this new information we are sure that you can make a confident
description about your family.

5.5 GLOSARIO (GLOSSARY)

abuelo (el) : grandfather nieto (el) : grandson
abuela (la) : grandmother nieta (la) : granddaughter
apellido (el) : surname nombre (el) : name
casado/a : married novia (la) : girlfriend
cuñada (la) : sister-in-law novio (el) : boyfriend
cuñado (el) : brother-in-law nuera (la) : daughter-in-law
divorciado/a : divorced padre (el) : father
familia (la) : family primero/a : first
hermana (la) : sister primo (el) : male cousin
hermano (el) : brother prima (la) : female cousin
hierno : son-in-law segundo/a : second
hija (la) : daughter separado/a : separated
hijo (el) : son sobrino (el) : nephew
madre (la) : mother sobrina (la) : niece
marido : husband soltero/soltera : single
(o esposo) (el) suegra (la) : mother-in-law
mayor : older suegro (el) : father-in-law
menor : younger viudo/a : widower/widow
mujer : wife yerno (el) : son-in-law
(o esposa) (la)
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 La Familia y Parentesco
5.6 SOLUCIONES (KEY SOLUTIONS)
Actividad 1

Miguel Elena

 
 Guillermo Carmen Juan
María Enrique

Natalia Alberto Sara

Actividad 2
a) brother-in-law / sister-in-law
b) mother-in-law / father-in-law / parents-in-law
c) son-in-law / daughter-in-law
Actividad 3
a) Miguel es marido de Elena.
b) Juan es padre de Alberto.
c) Alberto es hijo de Carmen.
d) Natalia es nieta de Elena y Miguel.
e) María es madre de Natalia.
f) Alberto y Sara son hijos de Carmen y Juan.
g) Carmen es hermana de Enrique.
h) Natalia es prima de Alberto y Sara.
i) Miguel y Elena son abuelos de Alberto, Sara y Natalia.
j) Guillermo es tío de Sara.
Actividad 4

Joaquín Luisa Marcos Teresa

 


Cristóbal Josefina Silvia

 


Clara Raúl Sofía Sergio

 
Rubén Óscar

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Familia y el entorno Actividad 5
a) Estos son mis hermanos. Se llaman Felipe y Jaime.
b) Laura es española pero su padre es alemán.
c) Tus padres son muy jóvenes.
d) Mi madre se llama Pilar y es enfermera.
e) Javier vive en España pero sus abuelos viven en Colombia.
Actividad 6
a) - Ana, ¿cómo se llama tu hermana?
- Mi hermana se llama Esther.
b) - Pierre, ¿de dónde eres?
- Yo soy francés pero mis padres son italianos, de Roma.
c) - Susana, ¿a qué se dedican tus primos?
- Mi prima Marta es ingeniera y su hermano es médico.
d) - Luis, ¿vives con tus padres?
- No, ya no vivo con mis padres. Vivo con mi novia.
e) - ¿Los hermanos de Raquel viven también en el País Vasco?
- Sí, sus hermanos viven en Bilbao.
Actividad 7
A B C
¿Quién habla? Alberto Manuel Roberto
¿Dónde vive? Salamanca Madrid Barcelona
¿Cuántos años tiene? 42 67 9

Actividad 8
a) Mario y yo no estamos casados pero vivimos juntos.
b) - ¿Vosotras estáis casadas?
- No, estamos solteras.
c) - ¿Julia está viuda?
- No, su marido vive.
d) - Tú estás divorciada, ¿verdad? (estás)
- No, estoy separada.
e) - ¿Ustedes están casados?
f) Guillermo está soltero y vive muy bien.
Actividad 9
a) Me llamo b) se llama
c) Es d) se llama
e) profesora f) mi
g) tío h) está
i) Su j) tienen
k) primas l) tía
m) tiene n) soltera
o) vivimos
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