Blood Relations and Relationship Problems

• Male words: father, son, brother, uncle, nephew, grandfather, husband, son-in-law, boy.

• Female words: mother, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, grandmother, wife, daughter-in-law, girl.

• Gender-neutral words: parent, child, sibling, cousin, spouse, friend, person, teacher. If the final relation depends on the gender of such a person, the answer is often "cannot be determined".

• Paternal means the father's side and maternal means the mother's side.

1. Mark males with a plus sign (or a square) and females with a minus sign (or a circle). Use a double line for marriage, a horizontal line for siblings and a vertical line for parent and child.

2. Place the speaker or the first named person first.

3. Process one phrase at a time. Do not try to hold the whole sentence in your head.

4. For long statements, solve from the end of the sentence backward to the beginning.

5. Count generations: moving to a parent goes one level up, moving to a child goes one level down, and siblings are on the same level.

6. Read off the relation asked, giving the exact name (paternal uncle, not just uncle).

Exams often define symbols such as A + B (A is mother of B), A - B (A is brother of B), A x B (A is sister of B), and ask for a relation in a chain.

Example. If P + Q means P is the mother of Q, Q - R means Q is the brother of R, and R x S means R is the sister of S, how is P related to S in P + Q - R x S?

• P is the mother of Q. Q and R are siblings. R and S are siblings, so Q, R, S are all children of the same mother.

• P is the mother of S.

Example 1. Pointing to a man, a woman says, "His mother is the only daughter of my mother." How is the woman related to the man?

• The only daughter of my mother is myself, the woman.

• So the man's mother is the woman, and the woman is the man's mother.

Example 2. Pointing to a photograph, Ravi says, "He is the son of the only son of my grandfather." Who is the person in the photograph?

• The only son of Ravi's grandfather is Ravi's father.

• Ravi's father's son is Ravi's brother.

Example 3. A is B's sister. C is B's mother. D is C's father. E is D's mother. How is A related to D?

• A and B are siblings, and C is their mother. D is C's father, so D is their maternal grandfather.

• A is D's granddaughter. (E is D's mother, so A is E's great-granddaughter.)

Example 4. Pointing to a lady, Arun says, "She is the daughter of the woman who is the mother of the husband of my mother." How is the lady related to Arun?

• The husband of Arun's mother is Arun's father. His mother is Arun's paternal grandmother.

• Her daughter is Arun's father's sister, so the lady is Arun's paternal aunt.

Example 5. P is the brother of Q. Q is the sister of R. R is the father of S. How is P related to S?

• P, Q and R are siblings. R is S's father, so P is the brother of S's father.

• P is S's paternal uncle.

Example 6. A's mother is B's sister. How is A related to B's son?

• B's sister is A's mother, so B is A's maternal uncle or aunt, and B's son is B's child.

• A and B's son are cousins, regardless of B's gender.

• "Only" clues are strong. "My mother's only son" always points to the speaker (if male) or to the speaker's brother (if female). Use them to shortcut the chain.

• Reduce long chains. Convert each pair of links into one: "father's brother" becomes "paternal uncle", "mother's mother" becomes "maternal grandmother", and carry on.

• Generation counting. Add one level for each parent step up and subtract for each child step down; siblings add nothing. This tells you whether the answer is a grandparent, parent, sibling or child level.

• Sibling groups. If A is the brother of B and B is the sister of C, then A, B and C are all siblings. Treat them as one group.

• Gender missing at the end? Check whether the options include "cannot be determined" before you assume a gender.

• Confusing paternal and maternal sides.

• Taking "brother-in-law" as only one meaning. It can be spouse's brother, spouse's sister's husband, or sister's husband.

• Forgetting that "cousin" has no gender and no side.

• Using the speaker's own relation instead of the relation of the pointed person.

• Answering with a gendered term when the person's gender is not given.