Blood Relation in Reasoning

How to solve Blood Relation Questions easily

The Reasoning section of every competitive exam includes questions from the topic "Blood Relations". This topic is considered to be quiet important and every year a good number of questions are asked from this topic. It is considered to be a very scoring topic. We are providing you with all the important tools to solve blood relations questions.

 How to solve Blood Relation Questions easily

Family or Blood Relationship means persons connected by relations like –

father-mother, son daughter, brother-sister, grandfather-grandmother, uncle-aunty, nephew-niece, brother-in-law sister-in-law etc. The list can go on and on adding members from father’s side and mother’s side etc.

Questions in Test of Reasoning on Family /Blood Relationship are about the relationship of a particular person with another person of the family, based on the chain of relationships between other members of that family

Family/Blood Relation Tests are an exercise to test the candidate’s ability to comprehend and come to the crux of an issue from complex, lengthy and unclear data.

 Example 1:

‘Ram’ is the father of ‘Kusha’ but ‘Kusha’ is not his son. ‘Mala’ is the daughter of ‘Kusha’.’Shalaka’ is the spouse of ‘Ram’. ‘Gopal’ is the brother of ‘Kusha’. ‘Hari’ is the son of ‘Gopal’. ‘Meena’ is the spouse of ‘Gopal’. ‘Ganpat’ is the father of ‘Meena’. Who is the grand daughter of ‘Ram’?

(1) Hari

(2) Mala

(3) Meena

(4) Shalaka

Solution:

‘Mala’ is the daughter of ‘Kusha’ and ‘Ram’ is the father of ‘Kusha’. So, ‘Mala’ is the granddaughter of ‘Ram’. Hence, answer is (2) Mala.

Some Common Terms

Meaning of some terms often used in questions on family relationship are given below:

a) Parent – Mother or father

b) Child – Son or daughter (even if an adult)

c) Sibling – Brother or sister (Including half brother and half sister - one parent in common)

d) Spouse – Husband or wife

Basic Relationships:-

Aunt, Uncle, Niece and Nephew

• Most English speakers use “uncle” for any of four relationships: father’s brother, mother’s brother, father’s sister’s husband, or mother’s sister’s husband.
• Again, “aunt” in English could mean father’s sister, mother’s sister, father’s brother’s wife, or mother’s brother’s wife.
• Brother’s or sister’s son is called nephew. Brother’s or sister’s daughter is called niece.
• Children of aunt or uncle are called cousins.

Relationships Involving the Term ‘-in-law’

General

•  Any relationship term ending with -in-law indicates that the relationship is by marriage and not by blood. In other words, -in-law will be a blood relative of the spouse.
• In-law relationship terms are always written with hyphens. And the plural is formed on the part before the “-in-law”;

For example, “brothers-in-law” and not “brother-in-laws”. The only exception is the general term “in-laws”, which is always plural.

Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, Son-in-law and Daughter-in-law

•  Father-in-law is the father of spouse; mother-in-law is the mother of spouse. If parents get divorced and remarry, their new spouses are called stepparents, not mother-in-law and father-in-law.
• The husband of daughter is son-in-law; the wife of son is daughter-in-law. If spouse has children from a previous marriage, those are called stepchildren, not sons-in-law or daughters-in-law. The person is their stepfather or stepmother, not their father-in-law or mother-in-law.

Brother-in-law and Sister-in-law

•  Brother-in-law” and “Sister-in-law” each have two or three meanings as follows:

a) Sister-in-law could be

i) The sister of spouse, or

ii) The wife of brother, or

iii) The wife of spouse’s brother.

b) Similarly, Brother-in-law could be

i) The brother of spouse, or

ii) The husband of sister, or

iii)  The husband of spouse’s sister.

Relationships Involving the Terms ‘Grand’ and ‘Great’

•  The relationships of the second generation are prefixed with the word Grand.
• Similarly, for a person, the first generation above him would be that of his/her parents (Father/ Mother). The next/second generation above him/her would be the parents of the parents who would be called Grand Parents/ Grand Father/ Grand Mother of that person. The next/ third generation parents would be called Great Grand Parents/ Great Grand Father/ Great Grand Mother of that person.
• This also applies to the collateral relationships.

For example: Son of nephew of a person is called Grand Nephew; Brother of Grand Father is called Grand Uncle and so on.

• The fourth generation relationships are called Great Great Grand. For example, Son of Great Grand Son is Great Great Grand Son.

There are two ways Martha could have a stepsister:

a) If Martha’s mother marries second time, and her new husband (Martha’s new stepfather) already has a daughter from a previous marriage, that daughter is Martha’s stepsister because one of her parents is married to one of Martha’s parents.

b) If Martha’s father marries second time, and his new wife already has a daughter, that daughter is again Martha’s stepsister.

Summary of Some Common Relationships

• Summary of some common Relationships is given below in tabular forms: