Family members and “my” in Italian

Grammar

Possessive adjectives

Watch the video explanation or read the notes that follow:

To say something is ‘mine’, there are 4 options in Italian, depending on the gender and number of the noun that follows:

Eg. My cat:

  1. Look up the word cat: GATTO
  2. Work out its gender & number: MASCULINE, SINGULAR
  3. Choose the appropriate form of mine: IL MIO
  4. Place it in front of the noun: IL MIO GATTO

“Your”, “his/her”; “our”; “your” and “their” follows a similar pattern.

Watch the video explanation or read the notes that follow:


Eg. Your turtle:

  1. Look up the word turtle: TARTARUGA
  2. Work out its gender & number: FEMININE, SINGULAR
  3. Choose the appropriate form of your: LA TUA
  4. Place it in front of the noun: LA TUA TARTARUGA

Eg. Her rabbits:

  1. Look up the word rabbits: CONIGLI
  2. Work out its gender & number: MASCULINE, PLURAL
  3. Choose the appropriate form of his/her: I SUOI
  4. Place it in front of the noun: I SUOI CONIGLI

Possessive adjectives with family members

Exception to the rule:

Watch the video explanation or read the notes that follow.

When using nouns for SINGULAR family members (Eg. Padre, madre, sorella, fratello, zia, zio, etc); do NOT use the article in front of the possessive adjective:

Eg. My mother: mia madre NOT la mia madre

Eg. His sister: sua sorella NOT la sua sorella

But wait: there’s an exception to the exception! The article IS USED before a possessive adjective for the following cases:

 1. for plural family members: Eg. Your brothers: i tuoi fratelliEg. Our aunties: le nostre zie
 2. when an adjective follows the family member: Eg. My older brother: il mio fratello maggioreEg. Your maternal grandmother: la tua nonna materna
 3. when using colloquial family nouns such as mum, dad (as opposed to mother/father):  Eg. My mum: la mia mammaEg. His father: il suo papa`
 4.when using ‘altered’ family nouns such as “fratellino,   sorellina, cuginetta, fratellone” Eg. My little sister: la mia sorellinaEg. My little cousin: il mio cuginetto
 5. an article is ALWAYS used with the possessive LORO Eg. Their sister: la loro cuginaEg. Their father: il loro padre

 

Useful language

Talking about your family

Introduction:

To answer the question “Parlami della tua famiglia”, start by stating how many people are in your family.

  • Nella mia famiglia siamo in 6: mio padre, mia madre, mia sorella, i miei due fratelli ed io.
  • La mia famiglia e` composta da 4 persone: mio padre, mia madre, mio fratello ed io.

Describing family:

Use the language you learned in pysical description and character description  but keep the following in mind:

1. when describing each family member, remember to change the verbs to the lui/lei form.

  • eg. Mio fratello si chiama Robert e ha sedici anni.
  • Eg. Mio padre legge molto e ogni tanto gioca a calcio (My father reads a lot and every now and then he plays soccer)

2. remember to change the last letter of adjectives to …a for girls and …o for boys (unless they are adjectives that end in …e, which don’t change for gender).(Ps: you can review adjective endings by watching the video in the nationalities section of our greetings & introductions unit).

  • Eg. Mia madre e` simpatica ma mio padre e` severo.

 

Vocabulary

Please memorise this list of words. You may choose your level of difficulty for the quiz: a) receive a list of English words and you must write all the equivalent words in Italian, using the correct article and plural; b) receive a list of Italian words and you must write all the equivalent words in English, but place the correct form of “MY”. Because option B is a lot easier, your mark will be reduced by 20%, meaning that the maximum marks you can get is 80%, even if you get all your words correct.

Week 6: family members  & “my”
Mia madre My mother
Mio padre My father
I miei genitori (or just I miei) My parents
 Mia sorella My sister
Le mie sorelle My sisters
Mio fratello My brother
I miei fratelli My brothers
Mia nonna My grandmother
Mio nonno My grandfather
I miei nonni My grandparents
Mia zia My auntie
Mio zio My uncle
I miei zii My auntie & uncle
Mia cugina My (female) cousin
Le mie cugine My (female) cousins
Mio cugino My (male) cousin
I miei cugini My cousins (male or mixed)
Mia moglie My wife
Mio marito My husband
La mia ragazza My girlfriend
Il mio ragazzo My boyfriend
Va bene! ok
Che bella torta! What a great cake!
Ho una fame da lupo! I’m as hungry as a wolf
In famiglia siamo in 5 There’s 5 of us in my famnily
Mia nonna abita con me My grandma lives with me