Let’s continue with our discussion about how we name the members of our family. In part 1 we talked about the immediate family. This blog will widen out to include the extended family.

mia nonna = my grandmother: la mamma di mio papà, cioè  la mia nonna paterna, si chiamava Rosetta – my father’s mother, in other words my paternal grandmother, was called Rosetta. La mamma di mia mamma, cioè la mia nonna materna, si chiamava Vincenza – my mother’s mother, in other words my maternal grandmother, was called Vicenza

mio nonno = my grandfather: here we follow the same rule as above, i.e.: il mio nonno paterno/materno

mio zio = my uncle: Zio Luciano è il marito della sorella di mia mamma – Uncle Luciano is my mother’s sister’s husband – in realtà Luciano è uno zio acquisito – actually he’s an acquired uncle – non è un consanguineo – he’s not a blood relative

mia zia = my aunt: Zia Vicky, la sorella di mia mamma, abita in Inghilterra ormai da tantissimi anni – aunt Vicky, my mother’s sister, has lived in England for many years now

Now for something a bit confusing: in Italian we use the same words for nephews and grandchildren.

mio nipote = my  nephew, or my grandson, mia nipote = my niece, or my granddaughter. We differentiate either by the context of the conversation, or by clarifying who we’re referring to, e.g. mio nipote Carlo, cioè il figlio di mia figlia, ha ventisei anni – my grandson Carlo, that is my daughter’s son, is twenty six

N.B. we often use the expression nipotino = little nephew/grandson, and nipotina = little niece/granddaughter: La mia nipotina Margherita ha i capelli biondi e ricci – My little niece Margherita has blond curly hair

mio marito = my husband: mio marito è Inglese –my husband is English. Il marito di Roberta è Francese – Roberta’s husband is French

mia moglie = my wife: la moglie di Claudio si chiama Annalisa – Claudio’s wife is called Annalisa

i miei suoceri = my parents in law: mio suocero = my father in law and mia suocera = my mother in law

mio cognato = my brother in law: non ho nessun cognato – I don’t have any brothers in law

mia cognata = my sister in law: ho quattro cognate – I’ve got four sisters in law

mio genero = my son in law: il genero di Giorgio fa l’ingegnere – Giorgio’s son in law is an engineer

mia nuora = my daughter in law: la nuora di Franco ed Elisa non ha figli – Franco and Elisa’s daughter in law doesn’t have any children

mio cugino/mia cugina = my cousin (masculine/feminine): mio cugino Paolo abita in Germania e mia cugina Francesca abita in Svizzera – my cousin Paolo lives in Germany and my cousin Francesca lives in Switzerland

P.S. A lot of people get confused about where to use the article when speaking about relatives, e.g. we say mia sorella – my sister, but le mie sorelle– (the) my sisters. This is quite a difficult topic so I will deal with it in the next blog.

Alla prossima