Asking about someones family: Family members and relatives

💬 A mixed group of sons and daughters takes the masculine plural figli. The same pattern gives nonni for grandfather and grandmother, and zii for uncles and aunts.

💬 moglie ends in -e but is feminine, so it takes la. You can't always tell gender from the last letter.

💬 Hold the double n: (NOHN-noh). With a single n, nono means "ninth".

🇮🇹 Grandparents often play a big daily role in Italy, like picking up grandchildren from school. Asking about someone's nonni is a warm, natural topic.

💬 Masculine words starting with z take lo instead of il. Same with lo studente "the student".

💬 Only the word in front changes: il nipote for a boy, la nipote for a girl. Context tells you whether it's a grandchild or a nephew or niece.

💬 parenti looks like "parents" but means relatives in general. Parents are genitori.

💬 Italian keeps la before "my": la mia famiglia, literally "the my family". Same with la mia casa "my house".

🇮🇹 Use tua with friends, peers and children. With an older stranger, say la Sua famiglia.

💬 grande stays the same for masculine and feminine: un figlio grande, una famiglia grande. It only changes in the plural, to grandi.

💬 The -a ending matches a feminine word like famiglia. With a masculine word it becomes piccolo: un fratello piccolo "a little brother".

💬 Italian usually drops "it": è alone already means "it is" or "he/she is". Don't confuse it with e without the accent, which means "and".

💬 A statement becomes a question just by raising your voice at the end. The word order stays the same as La tua famiglia è grande.

💬 The h in ho is silent: say (oh). It's there only to tell it apart from o "or".

💬 Italian asks this without any word for "any": just Hai plus the plural. Same pattern: Hai figli? "Do you have children?"

💬 A woman says sono figlia unica instead. Both words switch to match.

💬 Italian skips "an" here: "I am only daughter". A man would say Sono figlio unico.

🇮🇹 Fine among peers once you're chatting, but with a stranger it can feel personal. Italians often ask about family early, so expect the question back.

💬 No "any" needed: Hai figli? is complete. Same with Hai fratelli? "Do you have siblings?"

💬 quanti changes to match the noun: quante sorelle for sisters. In practice, fratelli here usually means siblings of either sex.

💬 With a single family member, Italian drops the il: mio padre, mia sorella. It comes back in the plural, i miei fratelli, and with mamma and papà: la mia mamma.

💬 Literally "he calls himself Marco". Swap the name and person: mi chiamo Anna "my name is Anna".

💬 chi in chiama sounds like English k: (KYAH-mah). ch in Italian is always hard.

💬 Italian "has" years rather than "is" an age: ha means "has". Answer the same way: ho trent'anni "I'm thirty".

💬 In the plural, family words get their i back: i miei nonni, but mio nonno.

💬 Use a for cities and in for countries: abitano a Roma, abitano in Italia.

💬 Stress falls on the first syllable: (AH-bee-tah-noh), not (ah-bee-TAH-noh). The -ano ending of "they" verbs is never stressed.

💬 Italian often puts the people after the verb in questions: Dove abitano i tuoi genitori?, literally "Where live your parents?"