It is a very common thing to ask….how many siblings do you have? It’s time then to see vocabulary about family and again the gender of those words, because the meaning is completely different if masculine or feminine. Per example:
HERMANO (Masculine O ⇒ Brother)
turns feminine
HERMANA (Feminin e⇒ Sister)
◊ If we go to the masculine word and we make it plural refers to all of them:
HERMANOS (Masculine/Plural) ⇒ SIBLINGS
→ If we turn the feminine into a plural word, it will refers to all of the girls only; not girls and boys.
Note that when we make the masculine plural we can refer to all of them; girls and boys or only boys if we refer to only men.
|
MASCULINE |
FEMININE |
PLURAL |
|
PADRE (Father) |
⊗ |
PADRES (Parents) |
|
MADRE (Mother) |
⊗ |
|
|
HERMANO (Brother) |
HERMANA (Sister) |
HERMANOS (Sibling) |
|
ABUELO (Grandfather) |
ABUELA (Grandmother) |
ABUELOS (Grandparents) |
|
TÍO (UNCLE) |
TÍA (AUNT) |
TÍOS (Uncles and Aunties) |
|
PRIMO (Cousin boy) |
PRIMA (Cousin girl) |
PRIMOS (Cousins boys and girls) |
|
NOVIO (Boyfriend) |
NOVIA (Girlfriend) |
NOVIOS (Couple) PAREJA (Couple) |
|
MARIDO (Husband) |
⊗ |
PAREJA (Couple) |
|
MUJER (Wife) |
⊗ |
|
|
ESPOSO (Spouse) |
ESPOSA (Wife) |
PAREJA (Couple) |
♣ Note:
- PADRE and MADRE are different words so the masculine-feminine change does not apply.
- NOVIO (Boyfriend) can refer to a fiancee. A man who is about to get married.
- NOVIA (Girlfriend) can refer to a fiancee and to a bride.
- PAREJA (Couple), the actual meaning is pairs. And so when per example we play Poker, and we have a pair of aces in Spanish we’d say PAREJA DE ASES.
As there are many members of a family and our close circle, we are going to split that vocabulary in 2 parts.
Here it comes the rest of the members of our intimate circle:
|
MASCULINE |
FEMININE |
PLURAL |
|
AMIGO (Friend man) |
AMIGA (Friend woman) |
AMIGOS (Friends men and women) |
|
MEJOR AMIGO (Best friend) |
MEJOR AMIGA (Best girl friend) |
MEJORES AMIGOS (Best friends women and men) |
|
CHICO (guy) |
CHICA (Girl) |
CHICOS (Boys and girls) |
|
PRIMO (Cousin boy) |
PRIMA (Cousin girl) |
PRIMOS (Cousins boys and girls) |
|
NIÑO (Kid boy) |
NIÑA (Kid girl) |
NIÑOS (Kids boys and girls) |
|
HERMANO MAYOR (Older brother) |
HERMANA MAYOR (Older sister) |
HERMANOS MAYORES (Older brothers and sisters) |
|
HERMANO MENOR (Younger brother) |
HERMANA MENOR (Younger sister) |
HERMANOS MENORES (Younger brothers and sisters) |
|
HIJO (Son) |
HIJA (Daughter) |
HIJOS (Children) |
◊ Note: as we said previously, when we make the masculine plural can refer to all of them (girls and boys) or only mean (boys) and when we make the feminine plural refers to only girls.
Affirmation in Spanish
We can practice a little conversation asking about siblings or children in an affirmative way. We need the verb to Have and this post vocabulary about family; once we have them both, we are ready to build the sentence knowing clearly both.
We have not seen yet the negation (when we say no) in Spanish and this is what we are going to see in the following section.
Let’s build it then, as we well know already, in an affirmative way:
¿CUÁNTOS HERMANOS TIENES?
HOW MANY SIBLINGS DO YOU HAVE?
YO TENGO DOS HERMANOS
I HAVE TWO SIBLINGS
Or if asking about Childs:
¿CUÁNTOS HIJOS TIENES?
HOW MANY CHILDREN DO YOU HAVE?
YO TENGO DOS HIJOS
I HAVE TWO CHILDS
Negation in Spanish
Here comes the negation in Spanish. It is a really easy thing as we do not have in Spanish an auxiliary word to negate as in English we do (does not or do not).
In Spanish we just use the negation adverb NO in front of the verb. It is that easy, but remember, the NO, comes right in front of the verb. Let’s see:
¿CUÁNTOS HERMANOS TIENES?
HOW MANY SIBLINGS DO YOU HAVE?
YO NO TENGO HERMANOS
I DO NOT HAVE SIBLINGS
Or if asking about Childs:
¿CUÁNTOS HIJOS TIENES?
HOW MANY CHILDS DO YOU HAVE?
YO NO TENGO HIJOS
I DO NOT HAVE CHILDS
¿CUÁNTOS HIJOS TIENE (ELLA)?
HOW MANY CHILDS DOES SHE HAVE?
ELLA NO TIENE HIJOS
SHE DOES NOT HAVE CHILDS
It is clear how we make the negation in Spanish, isn’t it?
