The right viewpoint: who speaks, who is asked
When one person speaks to another, "my" belongs to the speaker and "your" to the listener, and the question may be about either of them, or about someone else in the sentence. In this lesson you keep three viewpoints apart and answer from the one the question asks.
Guess first
At a family dinner, Kunal, a boy, says to Ira: "My father is your father's brother." How is Kunal related to Ira?
Show answer
Correct answer: A
"My" is Kunal and "your" is Ira. Kunal's father is the brother of Ira's father, so Kunal's father is Ira's paternal uncle, and Kunal is that uncle's son: Ira's cousin, चचेरा भाई.
Option B: Kunal and Ira have different fathers; their fathers are brothers. That makes them cousins.
Option C: This stops one link early. Kunal's father is Ira's paternal uncle; Kunal is his son.
Option D: The link runs through Ira's father, so the cousin is on the father's side.
Hint: Put names in place of "my" and "your" first.
You swapped "my" for Kunal and "your" for Ira without thinking. With two speakers and a third person, that swap is the whole skill.
Three chairs at one table
A spoken clue has up to three chairs: who speaks, who listens, and who is talked about.
The speaker's chair I, me, my
the person saying the sentence
The listener's chair you, your
the person spoken to
The third chair he, his, she, her
someone pointed at or talked about
The question's chair "How is X related to Y?"
stand in Y's chair to answer
The words "my", "your" and "her" tell you which chair each part of the sentence starts from. The question then names the two chairs it is about, and they need not be the speaker's.
| In the sentence | Starts from |
|---|---|
| my mother, my only brother | the speaker |
| your father, your sister | the listener |
| her father, his wife | the person talked about |
See it: one sentence, three viewpoints
Pointing to a girl, Vijay says to his wife Anita: "Her father is your brother."
Keep the chairs apart:
- Speaker: Vijay ("says"). Listener: Anita ("your"). Talked about: the girl ("her").
- Rewrite with names: the girl's father = Anita's brother.
- From Anita: across to her brother, then down to his daughter. The girl is Anita's brother's daughter: भतीजी.
- From the girl: up to her father, across to his sister Anita. Anita is her father's sister: बुआ.
- From Vijay: his wife's brother's daughter. The speaker can be the person furthest from the answer.
flowchart TD P["Anita's parents"] --> A["Anita (Vijay's wife)"] P --> B["Anita's brother"] B --> G["the girl: Anita's भतीजी"]
The same family in words: Anita and her brother are children of the same parents; the girl is the brother's daughter. Asked about the girl and Anita, the answer is भतीजी or बुआ, depending on the direction. Vijay, the speaker, is not part of either answer.
Try it on paper. Write a sentence you might say to a cousin ("Your mother is my father's sister") and name all three chairs before solving it.
Find the rule
Sunita, a woman, says to Rohan: "Your father's mother is my mother." Rohan is a boy, and his father is a man. How is Sunita related to Rohan?
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Correct answer: A
Rohan's father and Sunita have the same mother, so they are brother and sister. Sunita is Rohan's father's sister: paternal aunt (बुआ).
Option B: A maternal aunt (मौसी) is the mother's sister. The shared mother here is the mother of Rohan's father.
Option C: This drops Rohan's father. Sunita is his father's sister, one floor above Rohan.
Option D: "Brother's son" (भतीजा) is Rohan's relation to Sunita: the reverse question.
Hint: Two people with the same mother are siblings. Who are those two here?
Pointing to a girl, Vijay says to his wife Anita: "Her father is your brother." How is the girl related to Anita?
Show answer
Correct answer: A
"Your" is Anita. The girl's father is Anita's brother, so the girl is Anita's brother's daughter: भतीजी.
Option B: भांजी is a sister's daughter. The person in the middle is Anita's brother.
Option C: This drops Anita's brother. The girl is his daughter, not Anita's.
Option D: Paternal aunt (बुआ) is Anita's relation to the girl: the reverse question.
Hint: Ignore Vijay for a moment: the question is about the girl and Anita.
Name the rule
Seat everyone, then answer from the asked chair.
- Find the speaker ("says"), the listener ("your") and anyone talked about ("his", "her").
- Rewrite the sentence with names in place of my, your, his and her.
- Solve the chain. Two people with the same parent are siblings; a brother's or sister's father is one's own father.
- Read the question: "How is X related to Y?" Stand in Y's chair. The speaker may not appear in the answer at all.
The speaker only gives the clue. If the question asks about the girl and Anita, Vijay's words matter but Vijay's place in the family does not. Many wrong answers come from naming the speaker's relation instead of the asked one.
Worked, half-done, solo
Question
A man said to a woman: "Your brother's father is the only son of my paternal grandfather." How is the woman related to the man?
Solution
- Seat everyone
Speaker: the man ("my"). Listener: the woman ("your").
- Solve the man's side
His paternal grandfather's only son is the man's own father.
- Solve the woman's side
Her brother's father is her own father: siblings share their father.
- Join the two sides
The woman's father is the man's father, so they are children of one father.
Answer: The woman is the man's sister.
Watch out: "Grandfather" is not part of the answer. It only helped to name the man's father.
Now finish one that is half done.
A woman said to a man: "Your mother's brother is my father." The woman's father is the man's maternal uncle (मामा), and the woman is that uncle's daughter. So the woman is the man's ...
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Correct answer: A
The daughter of the mother's brother is a cousin on the mother's side: ममेरी बहन.
Option B: Her father is the man's uncle, not his father, so she is a cousin.
Option C: The link runs through the man's mother, so the cousin is on the mother's side.
Option D: This stops one link early: the maternal uncle is her father, not her.
Hint: Which Hindi cousin word goes with मामा?
And one on your own.
Kabir, a man, says to Lata: "My mother is your mother's mother." How is Kabir related to Lata?
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Correct answer: A
Kabir's mother is Lata's mother's mother, so Kabir and Lata's mother are children of the same woman: brother and sister. Kabir is Lata's mother's brother: मामा. (A woman saying the same sentence could be Lata's mother or her मौसी; Kabir is a man, so only मामा fits.)
Option B: A paternal uncle is the father's brother. Kabir shares a mother with Lata's mother.
Option C: Kabir is one floor above Lata: he is a sibling of her mother, not of Lata.
Option D: "Sister's child" is Lata's relation to Kabir: the reverse question.
Hint: Who are the two children of Kabir's mother in this sentence?
The traps
- "Your" read as "his": "your" is the listener, never the person pointed at.
- Answering for the speaker: the question may be about the listener and a third person; the speaker only gives the clue.
- Answering for the wrong person in the chain: "your father's mother is my mother" asks about the speaker, not about the grandmother.
- Wrong direction: stand in Y's chair for "How is X related to Y?".
- A gender from a name: "Kabir, a man" gives a gender; "Kabir" alone does not.
Sunita, a woman, says to Rohan: "Your father's mother is my mother." Raju answered: "Sunita is Rohan's paternal grandmother." What went wrong?
Show answer
Correct answer: A
"Your father's mother" is Rohan's paternal grandmother, but that woman is Sunita's mother, not Sunita. Sunita is that grandmother's daughter: Rohan's paternal aunt (बुआ).
Option B: The side is right: the shared mother is on Rohan's father's side.
Option C: The reverse would describe Rohan for Sunita ("brother's son"). Raju described a grandmother.
Option D: "Paternal grandmother" is Sunita's mother, not Sunita.
Hint: Who is the grandmother in this sentence: Sunita, or Sunita's mother?
Mixed check
Pointing to a man, Pooja, a woman, said: "He is the only son of my father's father." How is the man related to Pooja?
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Correct answer: A
Pooja's father is a son of Pooja's father's father, and that grandfather has only one son. So the only son is Pooja's father: the man is her father.
Option B: An uncle would be a second son of the grandfather. "Only" rules that out.
Option C: The grandfather is the man's father, not the man.
Option D: Every link is fixed: the grandfather's only son is Pooja's father.
Hint: Lesson 4: is Pooja's father a son of her father's father?
C is D's daughter. E is D's mother. Which statement is certain?
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Correct answer: A
E is the mother of C's parent D, so E is certainly C's grandmother. Whether she is दादी or नानी depends on D's gender, which no word gives.
Option B: "Paternal" says D is C's father; D's gender is not given.
Option C: "Son's daughter" says D is a man; that is not given.
Option D: D could be E's son; no word gives D's gender.
Hint: Lesson 3: which one person's gender decides the side here?
Quick reference
Who speaks, who listens, who is asked
- Speaker
- I, me, my the person saying the sentence
- Listener
- you, your the person spoken to
- Talked about
- he, his, she, her someone pointed at or named
- Routine
- seat everyone, rewrite with names, solve, then stand in Y's chair for "How is X related to Y?"
- Shortcut
- a sibling's father is your father; a sibling's mother is your mother siblings share parents
Why it works: a sentence can start chains from two or three people. Names stop "my" and "your" from moving, and the question decides whose chair you answer from.
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