Setä ja täti

Olemme nyt setä ja täti - minun veljanpoikani syntyi pari päivää sitten. No niin, onnantoivotukset keskiveljalleni ja hänen puolisollensa! *

Last week the topic in my conversation course was perhe - family. Which was a subject on my mind anyway for the reason mentioned above.  Compared to English, Finnish is sometimes a bit funny when it comes to words for relatives, being alternately vague, very specific or over endowed. You may already know that there is only one word for he/she (hän), which gives you an idea of what I'm getting at. 

• Children (lapset)
  
• Poika - boy or son
  
• Tytär - girl or daughter
• Sisko, sisar, systeri - sister
• Veli - brother

• Nephew - no specific word, but the compound: veljanpoika / sisarenpoika (brother's son / sister's son) is used
  
• Niece - again no specific word: veljantytär / sisarentytär (brother's daughter / brother's daughter)

• Setä - Uncle (Father's brother)
  
• Eno - Uncle (Mother's brother)
  
• Täti - Aunt

• Käly - Sister-in-law
  
• Lanko - Brother-in-law

• Puoliso - spouse, partner
  
• Mies - husband, man, mister, male, bloke, etc... (could be confusing); Aviomies - husband; Avomies - cohabitant/common-law husband (i.e. not actually married but in finland has same rights - which is lucky if you miss the i out on a form...)
• Vaimo / Aviovaimo - wife; Avovaimo - cohabitant/common-law wife

And for especially for my mum:

• Grandmother - isoäiti, mummo, mummu, mummi

* If all that didn't help translate, it says: We are now uncle and aunt - my nephew was born a couple of days ago. So, congratulations to my middle brother and his partner!