When you get married, your relatives by marriage are called in-laws. There is the mother-in-law, the father-in-law and, to them, you are a daughter-in-law or a son-in-law. If your spouse has more than one brother or sister, how do you refer to in-laws in the plural form?
For example, if one brother-in-law loves to barbecue and another brother-in-law makes the most wonderful pasta dishes, you can say that your brothers-in-law are excellent cooks. We add the letter “s” to the noun. This is true for any in-law in the plural form:
sisters-in-law
brothers-in-law
daughters-in-law
sons-in-law
mothers-in-law
fathers-in-law
cousins-in-law
This rule is for smaller groups. If you want to make things easy for yourself, just call them all “my in-laws”. Here we add the “s” at the end of “law” because “in-laws” is a collective noun, referring to the whole group.
- My "in-laws" have invited us on a cruise to the Bahamas.
- Elisa gets along very well with her "in-laws".
- Daniele’s "in-laws" have a family reunion every two years.
