IN-LAWS

Good morning / afternoon / evening everyone, depending on when you are reading this. Welcome back to the Daily Vitamin. I hope you are having a great day.

Do you know what the relation between you and the brother of your wife/husband is in English? How about the parents of your wife/husband? These family terms are actually very easy in English.

People who become your family by marriage are referred to as in-laws. To create these family terms, all you have to do is add in-law after the normal family names. Consider the following equivalents:

The sister of your husband / wife: sister-in-law
The brother of your husband / wife: brother-in-law
The mother of your husband / wife: mother-in-law
The father of your husband / wife: father-in-law
Etc.

Example 1:
I love my mother-in-law. I have two mothers... my American mother and my Spanish mother. :-)

And do you know what your mother-in-law or father-in-law calls you? That's right, their son-in-law or daughter-in-law.

The term in-laws is often used alone to refer to the family of your partner (your 'suegros' (esp) / 'sogres' (cat)').

Example 2:
Tonight my in-laws are coming for dinner; I have to get home to prepare things!

To get some writing practice in English, I encourage you to create a sentence (or two) with "in-law" or "in-laws". You can post your sentences on one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky) and we'll give you feedback about your sentences ASAP.

Enjoy your day!