It would have been clear if you had said: "There is a new baby in the
family. This is my nephew's wife with their new baby, Tracy."
If you say "my family" the meaning is restricted to you and your wife
and children. If you say "the family" the meaning is a bit ambiguous.
Since you said "the family" instead of "my family" it's clear that
family means a larger group of people related to you but it is not clear
how large. But the ambiguity is resolved immediately by saying
"nephew's wife".
I hope that helps.
Chuck Norcutt
Michael Wong wrote:
> As this thread, I made a mistake to use incorrect wording to describe the
> baby of my family. First, it's my nephew's baby. Originally I wish to said
> "a new baby in my families (include all families of my brother, my
> brother-in-law, sister-in-law). In Chinese, there are 2 wordings to identify
> own family & all families. I am confusing how to describe them separately.
> Is "relatives" good for description of families other than my own family?
>
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> ---
> Michel
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|