Spanish family vocabulary: members, plurals and possessives

Q: How do you say family, mother and father in Spanish?

"Family" is la familia, "mother" is la madre and "father" is el padre. In everyday speech you will also hear mamá and papá for mum and dad.

Q: How do you say "my brother" and "my sister" in Spanish?

"My brother" is mi hermano and "my sister" is mi hermana. The possessive mi does not change for gender — only the noun does — and the plural is mis hermanos for siblings in general.

In Spanish, the family is la familia. The first people you learn to name are la madre (mother) and el padre (father), then el hermano (brother) and la hermana (sister), and los abuelos (the grandparents). With just these you can already introduce the people closest to you.

Below are the everyday family words with their gender, an example sentence and audio. After the list, the sections cover close relatives, the wider family of aunts and cousins, how the masculine plural like los padres works, and the possessives mi and tu. If you also want to say where everyone lives, pair these with Spanish house vocabulary.

Word	Transcription	Translation	Example
familia	/faˈmilja/	family	Una foto de mi familia.A photo of my family.
madre	/ˈmaðɾe/	mother	Mi madre canta.My mother sings.
padre	/ˈpaðɾe/	father	Mi padre trabaja.My father works.
hermano	/eɾˈmano/	brother	Mi hermano puede correr.My brother can run.
hermana	/eɾˈmana/	sister	Mi hermana puede nadar.My sister can swim.
hijo	/ˈixo/	son	Mi hijo es educado.My son is polite.
hija	/ˈixa/	daughter	Mi hija es un bebé.My daughter is a baby.
abuelo	/aˈβwelo/	grandfather	Mi abuelo es viejo.My grandfather is old.
abuela	/aˈβwela/	grandmother	Mi abuela está en casa.My grandmother is at home.
tío	/ˈti.o/	uncle	Mi tío está aquí.My uncle is here.
tía	/ˈti.a/	aunt	Mi tía es la hermana de mi madre.My aunt is my mother's sister.
primo	/ˈpɾimo/	cousin	Mi prima tiene un hermano.My cousin has a brother.

Close family

The closest relatives are your parents — la madre (mother) and el padre (father) — your siblings el hermano (brother) and la hermana (sister), and your children el hijo (son) and la hija (daughter). Each word changes ending for gender, so the form already tells you whether you mean a man or a woman.

Mi madre y mi padre viven en Madrid.
My mother and father live in Madrid.

Tengo un hermano y una hermana.
I have a brother and a sister.

Su hijo y su hija van a la escuela.
Their son and daughter go to school.

Grandparents, uncles and cousins

For the wider family, the key words are el abuelo (grandfather) and la abuela (grandmother), el tío (uncle) and la tía (aunt), and el primo or la prima (cousin). These follow the same -o/-a gender pattern as the close family.

Mis abuelos tienen un perro.
My grandparents have a dog.

Mi tía y mi tío viven cerca.
My aunt and uncle live nearby.

Mi primo se llama Carlos.
My cousin’s name is Carlos.

The masculine plural covers both

This is the one rule that surprises English speakers. When a group mixes men and women, Spanish uses the masculine plural for the whole group. So los padres does not mean “the fathers” — it means the parents, mother and father together. The same logic gives you siblings, children, grandparents and the aunt-and-uncle pair.

Singular	Plural	Meaning
el padre / la madre	los padres	the parents (father and mother)
el hermano / la hermana	los hermanos	the siblings (brothers and sisters)
el hijo / la hija	los hijos	the children (sons and daughters)
el abuelo / la abuela	los abuelos	the grandparents
el tío / la tía	los tíos	the aunt(s) and uncle(s)

Los abuelos cuidan a los hijos los fines de semana.
The grandparents look after the children at weekends.

Possessives with family

Family words almost always travel with a possessive: mi madre (my mother), tu hermano (your brother), nuestros padres (our parents). The possessive agrees in number, not in the gender of the relative, so you say mi hermano and mi hermana but mis hermanos for several siblings. The full set of forms is in mi, tu, su.

Nuestros padres conocen a tu hermana.
Our parents know your sister.

Common mistakes

“Padres” means parents, not just fathers

In the plural, the masculine form covers a mixed group, so los padres means both parents together and los hijos means the children, not only the sons.

~~los padres = the fathers~~ → los padres = the parents.
I’m visiting my parents this weekend.

Parientes vs padres

Parientes means relatives in general — cousins, aunts, in-laws — while padres means specifically your mother and father. English “parents” maps to padres, not to the false friend parientes.

~~Hoy veo a mis parientes.~~ → Hoy veo a mis padres.
Today I’m seeing my parents.

Matching gender: hermano vs hermana

The noun itself changes for gender, so a sister is hermana and a brother is hermano; the possessive mi stays the same for both.

~~Ella es mi hermano.~~ → Ella es mi hermana.
She is my sister.

In Fluera you describe your own family in short spoken sentences — mi madre se llama…, tengo dos hermanos, mis abuelos viven cerca — and hear each word before you use it, so padres, hijos and tíos stop being a list and become people you can actually talk about. Try it when you practice Spanish with your real family in mind.

Practice

Question 1 of 12

familia/faˈmilja/

Frequently asked questions

How do you say family, mother and father in Spanish?

"Family" is la familia, "mother" is la madre and "father" is el padre. In everyday speech you will also hear mamá and papá for mum and dad.

Does "los padres" mean parents or fathers?

It means parents. Spanish uses the masculine plural for a mixed group, so los padres is mother and father together. In the same way, los hijos means the children (sons and daughters) and los abuelos means the grandparents.

How do you say "my brother" and "my sister" in Spanish?

"My brother" is mi hermano and "my sister" is mi hermana. The possessive mi does not change for gender — only the noun does — and the plural is mis hermanos for siblings in general.