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Read more comments. Relatives are the people in your family, either direct or indirect. Your cousins, brothers, sisters, aunts, etc. Relation is the manner in which two things may be associated, Example: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman! The fact is that the term relations is ambiguous in American English.
Relations can mean people in your family, it can mean people that you have had relationships with, and it could mean people that you have had sex with. It is often used as an innuendo for sex. So that is issue number one.
Even my grandma understands that relations can mean sex. So people steer clear of the word for that. Second issue is that when relations is used to mean family it is most likely the south and more often than not rural areas. Using the word might seem a little hillbilly-ish to some. I still have family I visit in the south that might use it but they would also work it into sexual jokes. So a "few relatives" is really clear but having a "few relations", not so much.
Relatives sharing relatives, is obvious The editors of The Oxford Learner's Thesaurus argue that even though sometimes they are interchangeable, relative is often used "when the exact relationship between the people is not known or does not matter," whereas relation is used "especially when you are stating or asking the degree of relationship between people.
I would speculate that this stems from 'relations' being a more formal word, representative of the greater social distance. The decline in the use of the word I would expect if this nuance holds.
Firstly because as countries modernise the social bonds between extended family become less necessary, so interfacing with 'relations' occurs more infrequently.
I have never seen friends and relatives written on invitations. The most commonly used phrase is Friends and Family. How I understand it, relatives are those individuals to whom one is tied to by blood or marriage. These relationships commonly use the term "relations". Considering this aspect, it seems as though "relations" would not qualify in the same way, or degree of closeness, as "relatives" when talking about family. Based on today's societal use and understanding, I would say both could be used as synonyms for each other depending, of course, upon the surrounding context.
Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Is there any difference between "a few relatives" and "a few relations"?
Ask Question. Asked 8 years ago. Active 7 years ago. Viewed 6k times. In the following sentence I prefer saying relatives but I am unable to explain why. Only a few friends and relatives have been invited On doing research I found that both nouns can be collocated after the following adjectives; distant , blood , and close.
We also have the phrase: Friends and relations , results Friends and relatives 1,, results Judging from the Google Ngram graph below it looks like the former was more commonly used in BrEng and is becoming increasingly rare. I can't even say that friends and relations is an old fashioned BrEng expression because according to CDO set at American English for relation it offers this example of usage: On our trip, we visited friends and relations on both sides of the family.
In TFD relation is defined thus; n. Relative n. One related by kinship, common origin, or marriage. EDIT I would like to expand my question and ask: What is the difference between relations and relatives when talking about family?
Is relations a word that is becoming out-of-date, or as WS2 commented, is it the "downmarket" version of relatives in BrEng? Does the term relatives sound more intimate and meaningful compared to relations as suggested by Kris? Improve this question. Community Bot 1. So far as the UK is concerned I would have said that 'relations' was a bit 'downmarket' of 'relatives'.
More literate people I suspect would be more inclined to use 'relatives'. But that is by no means hard and fast, and it is also something for which I have no formal evidence. Vast numbers of people will use both, sometimes, perhaps, it depending on to whom they are speaking. Generally I would use relations when thinking of that class of people who are related to me and relatives when I have the individuals several from that class in mind. We invite friends and relations to all major functions at home ; We had a few friends and relatives calling on us last week.
This is a comment because it may not be the usual or standard way the expressions are thought of. The French we were taught at school bore little relation ship to the language spoken in France. If what he'd said had borne any relation ship to the truth, he might have got off. In this meaning, relationship seems to be taking over from relation.
But in expressions with the verb bear , relation seems to be more common. The verb bear is often used with relation. It also collocates with certain other nouns. Relationships - friendship, love and sex. The way in which two or more people feel and behave towards each other He has a very close relationship with his uncle. It's a typical father-son relationship. She has a very good relationship with her employees. A close romantic friendship between two people, which is often sexual She's in a new relationship.
Have you had any serious relationships in the past year? He's not really looking for a relationship right now. The family connection between people What's your relationship to Sandy? We're second cousins. Note - Look at the difference between these two sentences:. The second question is very specific, but the answer to the first question could be any of the following, and many more besides:.
Collocations - adjectives often used with relationship. Exercise 4 - Complete the sentences with the most appropriete adjectives. Be careful with casual and causal.
Idioms connected to relationships Exercise 5 - Complete the sentences with appropriate words from the box. Collocations - verbs to talk about relations and relationships.
Certain verbs are often used to talk about international and business relations, relationships etc. Which two of those verbs suggest starting relations again after some sort of break?
Enter them in the same order as they appear in the list. Which four verbs suggest that relations were stopped, even if only temporarily. Again enter them in order. Which four verbs suggest that good relations are in danger.
Exercise 7 - Choose the correct options to complete the sentences. We are trying to good relations through regular contacts with our opposite numbers. Relations between the two countries were when a spy plane was shot down.
We like to close relationships with all our key clients. Relations between management and unions have as both sides have increasingly retreated into their own corners. After a year's break they have their relationship with their previous supplier. Although this is a new market for the company, they have already close relationships with local suppliers. Any more anti-British actions will seriously relations between the two countries. They their new relationship by announcing a joint venture.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been after a two-year break. Cancellation of some debt as well as increased investment has helped good relations with this part of Africa.
The company has relations with the star of its advertising campaign after complaints about his drunken behaviour in public. Printer friendly post You can make a teacher copy with answers by clicking on 'Show All'.
Make sure you 'Clear All' before printing student copies. I strongly recommend doing a Print Preview first. You might want to change your margins and you probably won't want to print every page.
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