Please follow and share on:

How to Call your Family Members in Italian

Ciao and welcome to a new Italian lesson! Today I’ll teach you how to call your family members in Italian.

You’ll learn how to say mother (madre), father (padre), brother (fratello), sister (sorella), and so on.

But this lesson is not just a list of Italian words; at the end, I’ll give you some easy sentences that you can use to talk about your family. Keep reading or watch the video if you want to know more.

Your Family in Italian

Here you are a list of some useful words to talk about your family in Italian. Note that we use the word “parente” for relatives and not for parents, so careful not to get confused! the way we call our parents in Italian is “genitori”.

PARENTE / PARENTI = relative(s)
GENITORE / GENITORI = parent(s)
FIGLIO / FIGLI = son(s)
FIGLIA / FIGLIE = daughter(s)
PADRE/ PADRI = father(s)
MADRE/ MADRI = mother(s)

Informally you call your parents PAPA’ (dad) and MAMMA (mom).

Other Family Members

NONNO / NONNI = grandfather(s)
NONNA / NONNE = grandmother(s)
FRATELLO / FRATELLI = brother(s)
SORELLA / SORELLE = sister(s)
ZIO / ZII = uncle(s)
ZIA / ZIE = aunt(s)
CUGINO / CUGINI = male cousin(s)
CUGINA / CUGINE = female cousin(s)
NIPOTE / NIPOTI = nephew, niece, grandson or granddaughter

Family “In-Law”

Then you have the family that you acquires when you get married or someone in your family gets married.

SUOCERO / SUOCERI = father(s) in law
SUOCERA / SUOCERE = mother(s) in law
COGNATO / COGNATI = brother(s) in law
COGNATA / COGNATE = sister(s) in law
GENERO / GENERI = son(s) in law
NUORA/ NUORE = mother(s) in law

Simple Examples (to talk about your family)

Lastly, you can see here some simple sentences to talk about your family in Italian.

1. FAMILY SIZE

The first example is to say about the size of your family.

If you have a big family, you can say: HO UNA FAMIGLIA NUMEROSA

While if your family is small, then you’ll say: HO UNA FAMIGLIA PICCOLA

The words “numerosa” means large/big whereas “piccola” is just the opposite and it means small.

2. HOW MANY BROTHERS/SISTERS

To ask how many brothers and sisters you’ve got, you need the word “quanti” that means how many.

Here’s the question:

QUANTI FRATELLI HAI?
QUANTE SORELLE HAI?

And this is how you can reply: “ho” plus the number of brothers/sisters you’ve got. So for instance:

HO TRE FRATELLI
HO DUE SORELLE

If you don’t have any brothers and sisters then you can reply:

SONO FIGLIO UNICO if you’re a boy/man
SONO FIGLIA UNICA if you’re a girl/lady

This sentence means that you’re an only child.

3. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

Last example for today is to ask someone if they have any kids:

HAI FIGLI? (Informal)
HA FIGLI (Formal)

Then you can answer this question in many different ways, depending of course on your situation:

SI, HO UN FIGLIO – if you have a son
SI, HO UNA FIGLIA – if you have a daughter
SI, HO TRE FIGLI – if you have more than one kid
NO, NON HO FIGLI – if you don’t have children

Here you have other lessons that can help you with your learning