Improve Your English Speaking Skills by Learning How to Talk About Your Family

Improve Your English Speaking Skills by Learning How to Talk About Your Family

- Hey everyone, I'm Teela with Deep English. I'm excited for another lesson together today. Today we'll be learning about how to talk about your family in English. I think that this is such an important thing to learn because so many people enjoy talking about their families. So this is an easy way to bond with other people who speak English. But before we get started, I want to remind you that if you'd like to get all of our latest videos right when they come out, feel free to subscribe below. Okay. So think about the word family. It's really similar to the word familiar in English. And so, when we think about that, it starts to make more sense to us that people who seem more familiar, who seem more, easy to relate to, feel more like family. And it's not only people, it's animals as well. So human beings often consider their pets, like their cat or their dog a family member. But we don't often consider an insect, for example, a family member. Why? Well because cats and dogs are mammals, and insects are not. And human beings are also mammals. So this makes cats and dogs more familiar to us, more like family. So it's really interesting, when we think about people preferring to be around other people who maybe look like them, or remind them of someone that they know, these people are more familiar and they feel more like family. So today we're going to learn about how to talk about your family in English. We'll go over three different important topics today. 

Family expressions

Our first one is how to use different expressions to talk about your family in English. So this one is important. When I was learning Spanish, it was very important that I knew different expressions and ways of talking about my family in Spanish, so that I could bond with other people while we talked about our families. So in English, one expression that's often used is the fam. So the fam refers to the family. So you might hear someone say something like, "Oh tonight me and the fam are going out for pizza." So the fam simply means me and the family. Someone might say, "Oh I'm going on vacation next week." And you might ask them, "Oh, are you gonna bring the fam along?" So the fam refers to the family. So this is a pretty common one. So you can use the word, the expression, the fam when you're referring to your family in a way that is casual. All right, so another expression that we sometimes use is flesh and blood. So, my own flesh and blood. So when we think about this, of course flesh is, is skin and muscle and fatty tissue, and blood is the red stuff that runs through the body. So we're not actually talking about flesh and blood. Flesh and blood actually refers to a family member that shares your DNA. And so when you think about family, most of the time, a family member is someone who shares genetic material with you, so you are biologically similar. So you actually share similarities in your flesh and blood. So most of the time, not all the time. And so we might use this expression, "Yeah he's my own flesh and blood. "I can't turn him away." So, my own flesh and blood, meaning he's family. So we might hear someone say, "Oh, "my son "came over and "he was being so rude, "but he hadn't eaten a meal all day long, "and so I couldn't tell him "no. "I served him dinner because he's my own flesh and blood." So my own flesh and blood, referring to a family member, someone who shares your DNA. Okay, let's do one more expression. One more expression is blood is thicker than water. Blood is thicker than water. So if you think about this, blood actually is thicker than water, but when you hear this expression, it's actually referring to family members being closer than friends. And so, we might use this expression in a sentence like, "It's no surprise that in the argument, "she took her mother's side "over the side of the family friend, "because blood is thicker than water." So blood is thicker than water. Okay, so now we've learned a few expressions. We've learned the fam, we've learned the flesh and blood, and we've learned blood is thicker than water. These are all really great ways to talk about your family. 

Immediate and extended family

So now let's move on to point number two. So, our second point is that there is a difference between your immediate family and your extended family. It's important that you know this difference because sometimes you might get a question like, "Oh, how many people are in your immediate family?" So you want to know what your immediate family is referring to. So your immediate family are your parents, your siblings, your grandparents, and your children if you have children. So everyone else is your extended family. So that's easy, right? So when we think about our extended family, we have cousins and aunts and uncles. Those are our extended family. Okay, so if I was going to talk about my immediate family, there are also a few phrases that I might use that I think would be very helpful for you to know as well. So I might use the phrase, "Oh, he's my better half." If I say something like that, that probably means that I'm referring to my husband, or it could be your boyfriend, but this is usually referring to a spouse. So someone who is your better half. We could also say something like, "Oh the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. If you hear someone say this, this expression refers to family members who are similar. So we might use it in a sentence like, "Susie did really great on her math test. "It looks like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree "in this family." Because maybe Susie's dad is a math professor. So we use this expression to show when family members are similar. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Okay, so, let's think about this. Can you let us know in the comments below how many people are in your immediate family? And then think about your extended family. My extended family is huge because my dad has 11 siblings. Do you have a big extended family or a rather small extended family? Feel free to let us know below in the comments.

Your place in your family

Okay, let's talk about the third part of our lesson today. And that is how to talk about your place in your family. So, think about where you are in your family. Are you the oldest sibling, are you the youngest sibling? Are you the only sibling? So if you are the oldest sibling, you would be referred to as the eldest. You may even be referred to as the eldest child. Even if you're a grown man or a grown woman. If you are the youngest sibling, you may be referred to as the baby of the family. Again, even if you're a grown man or a grown woman, you may be referred to as the baby. If you are in the middle, then you would be the middle child. And so, in English, we have this idea that the middle child sometimes gets forgotten about, and we call this middle child syndrome. (chuckles) So, let us know in the comments below where are you in your family? Are you the eldest, are you the baby? Are you the middle child? Or are you the only sibling? Are you the only child? If you are the only child, you would simply be referred to as an only child. You could use that in a sentence like, "Oh, I got all of my parents' attention "because I was an only child." 

Okay. So that does it for today's lesson. I had such a great time talking to you about how to talk about our families in English. I think it's so important to know how to talk about your family in English because it's an easy way to bond with other English speakers. So thank you guys so much for tuning in, and don't forget, if you are interested in free lessons, click below. Put your email address in, and you'll receive some free lessons from us. Thank you guys so much. I look forward to our next lesson together.