Asking about someones family: Family members and relatives

💬 mulher also just means 'woman', so context decides between 'wife' and 'woman'. With a minha in front, it means 'my wife'.

💬 avô and avó differ only in the last vowel: closed (ah-VOH) is grandfather, open (ah-VAW) is grandmother. The accent mark tells you which one you're seeing.

🇵🇹 Grandparents often play a big part in childcare in Portugal. Asking about os avós is a warm, natural topic.

🇵🇹 Children in Portugal often call any close adult family friend tia or tio. It doesn't always mean a blood relative.

💬 Use familiares for 'relatives', not parentes. Parentes does exist with the same meaning, but it never means 'parents'; that's pais.

💬 Pick meu or minha to match the relative, not yourself: a man says a minha mãe, a woman says o meu pai. In Portugal the o or a in front is normally kept.

🇵🇹 teu/tua suit friends, peers and younger people. With an older stranger, Portuguese people tend to skip 'you' and use the person's title or name instead, as in a senhora "you (to a woman, polite)".

💬 irmãos covers brothers and sisters together, so it's the natural word for "siblings". The ão is nasal, said through the nose, roughly (eer-MOWNSH).

🇵🇹 People often answer by repeating the verb instead of saying sim: Tens filhos? — Tenho.. That sounds very natural.

💬 No word for 'I' is needed, because the -o ending of tenho already means 'I have'. Swap in any relative: tenho uma irmã "I have a sister".

💬 'Two' changes with the noun: dois irmãos but duas irmãs. Only 'one' and 'two' do this.

💬 ão is nasal, said through the nose, roughly (nowng). It's not "no" with an English o.

💬 A woman says sou filha única. Note sou (from ser) is used, since being an only child is a lasting fact.

💬 A question can look exactly like a statement: tens filhos "you have children" becomes a question just by raising your voice at the end. No extra 'do' word is needed.

💬 'A' changes with the noun: um filho but uma filha.

💬 Ask a woman és casada?. The ending matches the person being asked about.

💬 A woman says sou casada. Sou "I am" is used for marital status, the same as for nationality or job.

💬 Literally 'how does … call themselves'. Add any person after it: Como se chama o teu pai? "What's your father's name?"

💬 In Portugal the se goes after the verb with a hyphen in plain statements: chama-se. It moves in front in questions: como se chama?.

💬 Age is something you 'have': literally 'how many years does he have?'. Don't use é "is" here.

💬 The -em ending already means 'they', so no separate word is needed. The person comes after the verb in the question: onde vive a tua irmã? "where does your sister live?"

💬 Use em for cities, but it merges with 'the' before most countries: em + o gives no Porto, and em + a gives na França. Lisbon takes no 'the', so it stays em Lisboa.

💬 pequena ends in -a because família is feminine. For a masculine noun you'd say é pequeno.