La famiglia: family members

Il padre, la madre: who is who

Family words come in pairs, a man and a woman. Most pairs share one word: -o for the man, -a for the woman (il nonno, la nonna). A few pairs are two different words: il padre and la madre, il fratello and la sorella, il marito and la moglie. Learn every word with its article: il for most masculine words, lo before z (lo zio), la for feminine ones.

In the plural, masculine -o and -e become -i, and the article il becomes i, lo becomes gli: i figli, i fratelli, i nonni, i cugini, gli zii. The masculine plural also covers men and women together: i fratelli are brothers and sisters, i figli are children (sons and daughters), i nonni are grandfather and grandmother, i genitori are father and mother.

Ho due fratelli e una sorella.I have two brothers and a sister.

Hai fratelli? – Sono figlio unico

To talk about your family, Italian uses the verb avere, “to have”: ho (I have), hai (you have), ha (he, she has), hanno (they have). The h is never pronounced. The question Hai fratelli? uses the plural without an article and means “Do you have brothers or sisters?”. If you have none: non ho fratelli, sono figlio unico – a woman says sono figlia unica.

– Hai fratelli? – No, sono figlia unica.– Do you have brothers or sisters? – No, I’m an only child.

Elena e Davide hanno due figli.Elena and Davide have two children.