Read the clue, build the family
A small clue, a different generation
Try first. You do not need a list of family terms yet.
By the end, you will draw only the relationships a clue actually gives you. Work on paper alongside the checks. The 10-question practice at the end is part of the lesson, not a separate test.
Nila is Kabir’s mother. Kabir is Tara’s father. What is Nila to Tara?
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Correct answer: B
Start at Tara: Tara’s father is Kabir, and his mother is Nila. Nila is Tara’s father’s mother: paternal grandmother. Tara’s gender is not needed.
Option A: This skips Kabir and loses one generation.
Option C: A maternal aunt requires the mother’s sister; neither clue supplies that link.
Option D: Both links and Nila’s gender are stated, so the relation is fixed.
Hint: Make one upward move for each parent link.
What you will be able to do
About 22 minutes, including practice.
- Translate a relationship into a directed fact.
- Use parent and sibling links to identify generations and cousin branches.
- Keep unstated gender and marriage unknown.
Turn a sentence into a map
“A is B’s father” supplies two facts: A is male, and A is B’s parent. Draw A → B, with “parent” on the arrow. It tells you nothing about B’s gender.
- Father/mother: one generation above the child.
- Son/daughter: one generation below the parent.
- Brother/sister: a sibling relation. The word tells you the first person’s gender, not the other person’s.
- Husband/wife/spouse: a marriage link, not a parent link.
Names and letters are labels, not clues to gender. In these exercises, different labels identify different people unless a statement explicitly connects an identity. Use only the described family links.
Now build a family one clue at a time.
- Farah is the mother of Dev and Ira. Draw Farah above both children. They share a parent, so Dev and Ira are siblings; their genders are not established by this first clue.
- Dev is Kiran’s father. Add Dev → Kiran. This establishes Dev as male; Kiran’s gender remains unspecified.
- Ira is Zoya’s mother, and Zoya is her daughter. Add Ira → Zoya. Ira and Zoya are female. Dev is Ira’s brother; Ira is Dev’s sister.
- Follow the branches: Kiran and Zoya are children of siblings, so they are cousins. They are not siblings merely because they sit on the same row.
Two branches, not one
Text version: Farah → Dev → Kiran; Farah → Ira → Zoya. Every arrow runs from parent to child. Dev and Ira share Farah as their mother. The two bottom children are in different sibling branches.
In this map, what is Zoya to Kiran?
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Correct answer: C
Kiran’s father is Dev. Dev’s sister is Ira, whose daughter is Zoya. Zoya is Kiran’s paternal aunt’s daughter, a cousin.
Option A: Same generation does not mean the children share a parent.
Option B: Zoya is in Kiran’s generation, not the parent generation.
Option D: Ira is the paternal aunt; Zoya is Ira’s daughter.
Hint: Go from Kiran up to Dev, sideways to Ira, then down to Zoya.
Which statement is NOT established by the map’s clues?
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Correct answer: D
Nothing says Kiran is a son, daughter, boy or girl. “Dev is Kiran’s father” fixes Dev’s gender only. The other three relations follow from the arrows.
Option A: Dev is Kiran’s father and Farah is Dev’s mother, so this is established.
Option B: They explicitly share Farah as mother, so this is established.
Option C: Ira is Zoya’s mother and Farah is Ira’s mother, so this is established.
Hint: Ask whose gender the word “father” actually states.
A useful contrast
Given: A is the father of B; C is the mother of B. Supported: A and C are B’s parents. Not supplied: A and C are married. Do not add a spouse line yourself.
Hindi often preserves a branch that English combines: father’s mother = दादी; mother’s mother = नानी. For a father’s brother, use “पिता के भाई” if relative age is unstated, rather than guessing चाचा or ताऊ.
Your turn: 10 independent problems
Start a fresh map for every question. Predict before choosing. Use a hint only after a genuine attempt, then explain the answer to yourself in one sentence.
- A is B’s father. B is C’s mother. What is A to C?
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Correct answer: A
C’s mother is B, and B’s father is A. A is C’s maternal grandfather (नाना).
Option B: The route is through C’s mother, not father.
Option C: There are two parent links, not one.
Option D: A is two generations above C, not a sibling.
Hint: Which parent of C leads you to A?
- L is M’s mother. M is N’s father. What is L to N?
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Correct answer: C
N’s father is M; M’s mother is L. The father’s mother is the paternal grandmother (दादी).
Option A: Maternal would require the route through N’s mother.
Option B: L is M’s mother, not N’s directly stated mother.
Option D: The two upward links rule out a sibling relation.
Hint: Start with N’s father M, then identify M’s mother.
- P is the father of Q and R. Q is R’s sister. What can we conclude about R’s relation to Q?
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Correct answer: D
Q and R share a father, so they are siblings. “Q is R’s sister” makes Q female, not R.
Option A: R’s gender has not been stated.
Option B: Only Q, not R, has been called a sister.
Option C: P is the father; R is another child of P.
Hint: Separate the relationship from the unknown gender.
- A is B’s brother. B is C’s mother. What is A to C?
Show answer
Correct answer: B
A is the brother of C’s mother B: maternal uncle (मामा).
Option A: A is the mother’s sibling, not a stated parent.
Option C: The sibling link is on the mother’s side.
Option D: A is one generation above C; a cousin would be a child of C’s parent’s sibling.
Hint: Begin with C’s mother.
- R is S’s sister. S is T’s father. What is R to T?
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Correct answer: A
T’s father is S; his sister is R. A father’s sister is a paternal aunt (बुआ).
Option B: Maternal aunt means mother’s sister; S is the father.
Option C: R is a parent’s sibling, not a stated parent.
Option D: R is one generation above T.
Hint: Which side of T’s family contains S?
- M is the mother of N and P. N is Q’s father; P is R’s mother. What are Q and R to one another through these links?
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Correct answer: C
N and P share a mother and are siblings. Their children Q and R are cousins. Neither child’s gender is stated.
Option A: Q and R are in the same generation here.
Option B: They have parents who are siblings, not a stated common parent.
Option D: No marriage link is given.
Hint: Find Q’s and R’s parents, then compare those parents.
- X is Y’s mother. What is Y to X?
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Correct answer: D
Reverse the parent link: Y is X’s child. X’s being a mother gives no information about Y’s gender.
Option A: Nothing states that Y is male.
Option B: Nothing states that Y is female.
Option C: This reverses a parent link into the wrong generation.
Hint: Which person does “mother” describe?
- K is L’s father. Which arrow correctly uses the rule “parent → child”?
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Correct answer: B
K is the parent and L the child, so the arrow is K → L. The arrow describes parenthood, not the order of names in every possible sentence.
Option A: This arrow would make L the parent of K.
Option C: The clue says father, not sibling.
Option D: Parenthood and marriage use different links.
Hint: Identify the parent before drawing.
- A is B’s father and C is B’s mother. Must A and C be married to each other?
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Correct answer: C
The clues establish two parent links to B. They establish neither marriage nor a sibling link between A and C.
Option A: Shared parenthood is not evidence that the parents are married.
Option B: A’s gender does not establish a marriage.
Option D: Missing marriage information does not create a sibling link.
Hint: List exactly the two links you were given.
- R is S’s daughter. S is T’s son. What is R to T?
Show answer
Correct answer: A
T → son S → daughter R. R is T’s son’s daughter, a granddaughter (पोती). T’s gender is unnecessary.
Option B: That reverses the requested direction: R is below T.
Option C: There are two generations from T to R.
Option D: R is explicitly a daughter and is two generations below T.
Hint: Draw the parent arrows even though the clues use child words.
Keep three habits
- Start at the person whose relative is being asked for.
- Draw only stated links; label gender only when a word supplies it.
- Count generations, then check the branch. Same row is not the same relationship.
Ready for Lesson 2? Without looking back, explain why Farah is Kiran’s दादी but Zoya’s नानी. If you can point to the two different parent branches, you are ready.
Syllabus connection: relationship concepts in SSC CGL 2026, §13.10.1. These are original teaching questions, not official past-paper items.
Quick reference
Start from the person after “to”. Parent → child; sibling links stay in one generation. Two upward parent links reach a grandparent, but the branch determines the Hindi term. A name is not gender evidence. Shared parenthood does not prove marriage.
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