as you may have noticed by now, english is not my native tounge. i have a question for all you who speek english since birth: is there room in the english language for describing the branching of a typical family tree? i think not. grandparents may refer to either your dad's parents or your mom's parents. niece and nephew present the same problem; it's not evident if it's your brother's of sister's children they refer to. and what about sister and brother? is it you older or younger sibling the word refers to?