Russian Vocabulary (and Wisdom)

How to say "family" in Russian

This Russian word is one of the top 1000 words in Russian. The complete list of most common Russian words is available here.

семья

Meaning: family

Pronunciation: [see-MYAH]

Part of speech: noun (feminine noun; sounds like семь (seven) + я (I))

Rank: #408 (see frequency list)

This is my family.
Photo by Violette79, licensed under CC GA 2.0

Example sentences:

У меня большая семья.
I have a big family.
Это моя семья: мама, папа, брат, сестра и я.
This is my family: mother, father, brother, sister and I.
Все счастливые семьи похожи друг на друга, каждая несчастливая семья несчастлива по-своему.
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. (Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina)
Русский язык принадлежит к индоевропейской языковой семье.
Russian language belongs to the Indo-European language family.
Он был из хорошей семьи, сын крупного адвоката.
He was from a good family, son of a big lawyer.
Говорили, будто он из хорошей семьи, чуть ли не сын сенатора.
It was said that he was from a good family, nearly a son of a senator.

Idioms and set expressions:

из хорошей семьи = of good stock; from a good family

Related words:

семейство = family
фамилия = family

Proverbs and sayings:

В семье не без урода.
Every family has its black sheep.
И в самых благородных семьях бывают скандалы.
Accidents will happen in the best regulated families.
Не надобен и клад, коли в семье лад.
A family that lives in love and accord does not need any treasures.

Other forms of the word (declensions):

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	семья́	се́мьи
Genitive	семьи́	семе́й
Dative	семье́	се́мьям
Accusative	семью́	се́мьи
Instrumental	семьёй	се́мьями
Prepositional	семье́	се́мьях

Phrase recordings: Copyright(c) 2011 MasterRussian.com. All rights reserved.
Word recordings: Copyright(c) 2006 Streit Goulnara, Streit Eric, Vion Nicolas. Copyright(c) 2007 S. Sakhno, N. Vion. Distributed under CC-BY.

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