​Kinds of Families

Level: Elementary. 

Grammar: have got/has got; to be in Present Simple

Read the text.

A nuclear family has got a mother, a father and a child or children. A mother and a father are parents. Their children are a daughter and a son. A husband and a wife are spouses.

An extended family has got a mother, a father, a child or children and many other relatives : a grandmother, a grandfather, a sister, a brother, a granddaughter, a grandson, an aunt, an uncle, god-mothers and -fathers, mothers- and fathers-in law, brothers and sisters-in law, a cousin, a niece and a nephew.

A man and a woman at a wedding are a groom and a bride (fiancé and fiancee).

A family which has one parent and a child, or children is a single parent family.

Children without parents are orphans and their grandparents or other relatives are their guardians.

Children who are adopted into a family are adopted children and their parents are foster parents.

Kin sisters and brothers are blood relatives. Adopted children are step brothers and sisters. A stepmother or stepfather is a person who has step children in a new family.

Baptizing or christening parents are a god mother and a god father.

Vocabulary and grammar practice

1. Put a tick for relatives you have got and a cross for relatives you have not got. Say what relatives you have (not) got in your nuclear and extended family.

Mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, daughter, son, sister, brother, wife, husband, granddaughter, grandson, aunt, uncle, godmothers and -fathers, mothers- and fathers-in law, brothers and sisters-in law, cousin, niece, nephew, fiancee.

2. Complete a story about Cinderella’s family with the words:

• a stepmother;
• the only child;
• a sister;
• an aunt;
• a brother;
• a stepsister;
• a godmother;
• a bride;
• a groom;
• wedding.

Cinderella is _______________ in the family. She has not got ________________ or _______________. When her father is a widower he is married to another woman. Now Cinderella has __________________. Her stepmother has a daughter. This is Cinderella’s ________________. Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsister are very angry with Cinderella. Cinderella has ________________. Her aunt is her ________________. Cinderella has ________________. Her groom is a prince. Cinderella is a very beautiful ___________________. They have their _____________ in the palace.