Families

Family relationships

• Close relatives are those like parents, children, brothers or sisters. Distant relatives are people like second cousins [the children of a cousin of your mother or father] or distant cousins.

Close/immediate family refers to people who are your nearest blood relatives:

• I don’t have much close/immediate family.
• She’s a distant cousin of mine; she’s not a blood relative.
• Close can also be used to mean that the relationship is a very strong one:
• We are a very close family. or We are a very close-knit family.

These adjectives also collocate with family:

• loving, respectable, dysfunctional [unhappy, not working in a healthy way]
• Henry came from a respectable family, so Ella’s parents felt happy about the marriage.

• Someone’s late husband/wife is one who has died.
• An estranged [formal] husband/wife is one who lives in a different place and has a difficult relationship with their husband/wife. They may be having a trial separation and may eventually decide to get a divorce. In some cases it can be a bitter/acrimonious divorce. [full of anger, arguments and bad feeling]
• A person’s ex-husband/ex-wife is a man/woman that she/he used to be married to.

• Children whose parents have separated or divorced are said to come from a broken home. If their family is a strong, loving one it can be called a stable home. If it is a poor one, not having the things that are necessary for a pleasant life, such as enough money, food or good living conditions, it can be called a deprived home.

• A confirmed bachelor is a man who seems to have no intention of ever marrying.