Family & Friends

This lesson builds your vocabulary related to family members and different types of friends and work relationships. You'll learn common nouns, collocations, and how to use these words in professional contexts.

• Names for family members (immediate and extended)
• Words for social and professional connections (friend, colleague, acquaintance, partner)
• Typical collocations and example sentences for work situations

Use precise vocabulary and appropriate register depending on the situation:

• Use 'colleague' for coworkers and 'partner' for a business partner or romantic partner (context clarifies meaning).
• Use 'acquaintance' to describe a weak social connection, not a friend.
• Use possessives for family relations: 'my sister', 'their parents', 'the company's founder and his brother'.

When in doubt in a business setting, prefer neutral terms like 'colleague' or 'partner' to avoid overfamiliarity.

Learners often make predictable errors when using family and friend vocabulary:

• Using 'family' as plural without adjusting verbs: 'My family are' vs 'My family is' — choose according to meaning (collective vs individuals).
• Confusing 'acquaintance' with 'friend' — they imply different closeness levels.
• Incorrect word order in compound relations: write 'sister-in-law' or 'brother-in-law' (hyphenation and pluralization rules apply: 'sisters-in-law').
• Using informal terms in formal contexts — prefer neutral words (e.g., 'colleague' instead of 'workmate' in reports).

Focus on countability, register, and correct compound forms.