Italian family vocabulary
These are the Italian words about family that come up most often in real speech, ranked by how often they appear in film and TV subtitles. Start with the first ones, such as padre (father), madre (mother), figlio (son), because you will run into them on almost any page about the subject, and the rarer words make more sense once those are familiar.
Words in this list: 30
| # | Word | Pronunciation | Translation | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | padre | /ˈpa.dre/ | father | A1 |
| 2 | madre | /ˈma.dre/ | mother | A1 |
| 3 | figlio | /ˈfiʎ.ʎo/ | son | A1 |
| 4 | famiglia | /faˈmiʎ.ʎa/ | family | A1 |
| 5 | moglie | /ˈmoʎ.ʎe/ | wife | A1 |
| 6 | fratello | /fraˈtɛl.lo/ | brother | A1 |
| 7 | figlia | /ˈfiʎ.ʎa/ | daughter | A1 |
| 8 | papà | /pa.ˈpa/ | dad | A1 |
| 9 | marito | /maˈri.to/ | husband | A1 |
| 10 | sorella | /soˈrɛl.la/ | sister | A2 |
| 11 | zio | /ˈd͡zi.o/ | uncle | A2 |
| 12 | nonna | /ˈnɔn.na/ | grandmother | A2 |
| 13 | nonno | /ˈnɔn.no/ | grandfather | A2 |
| 14 | zia | /ˈt͡si.a/ | aunt | A2 |
| 15 | nipote | /niˈpo.te/ | nephew | B1 |
| 16 | sposa | /ˈspɔ.za/ | bride | B1 |
| 17 | cugino | /kuˈd͡ʒi.no/ | cousin | B1 |
| 18 | sposo | /ˈspɔ.zo/ | spouse | B2 |
| 19 | genitore | /d͡ʒe.niˈto.re/ | parent | B2 |
| 20 | parente | /paˈrɛn.te/ | relative | B2 |
| 21 | sorellina | /so.relˈli.na/ | sis | B2 |
| 22 | padrona | /paˈdro.na/ | matron | B2 |
| 23 | cognato | /koɲˈɲa.to/ | brother-in-law | C1 |
| 24 | neonato | /ne.oˈna.to/ | newborn | C1 |
| 25 | patrigno | /pa.ˈtriɲ.ɲo/ | stepfather | C1 |
| 26 | suocera | /ˈswɔ.t͡ʃe.ra/ | mother-in-law | C1 |
| 27 | cognata | /koɲˈɲa.ta/ | sister-in-law | C1 |
| 28 | gemello | /d͡ʒeˈmɛl.lo/ | twin | C1 |
| 29 | genero | /ˈd͡ʒɛ.ne.ro/ | son-in-law | C1 |
| 30 | casalinga | /ka.za.ˈliŋ.ɡa/ | housewife | C1 |
How to make these words stick
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Sources: translations and pronunciation from Wiktionary (wikdict, CC BY-SA 3.0) and ipa-dict (MIT), frequency from OpenSubtitles (FrequencyWords).