Relationships & Family — Part 1
The Celpip Plus team
Written and reviewed against the official CELPIP scoring criteria
What you'll learn: the verb + noun collocations for talking about family and relationships — build a relationship, raise a family, resolve a conflict — the backbone vocabulary for CELPIP prompts about parenting, friendship, and family milestones.
Why this vocabulary shows up on CELPIP
Family and relationships are among the most common CELPIP topics — an email to a relative, a speaking task about a childhood memory, an opinion essay on parenting styles or long-distance relationships. Generic phrases like "have a good relationship with my mom" work, but they read as flat. Verb + noun collocations let you describe family dynamics with the same precision a native speaker would use naturally.
Core collocations
| Collocation | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| build a relationship | develop a connection with someone over time | It takes time to build a relationship based on trust. |
| maintain close ties | keep a strong connection despite distance or time | Even after moving abroad, she maintains close ties with her cousins. |
| raise a family | care for and bring up children | They decided to raise a family in a smaller town. |
| start a family | begin having children | My sister and her husband are ready to start a family. |
| spend quality time | dedicate meaningful, focused time with someone | We try to spend quality time together every Sunday. |
| resolve a conflict | settle a disagreement | It's important to resolve a conflict before it damages a friendship. |
| offer support | provide help or encouragement | My parents always offer support, even when they disagree with my choices. |
| share responsibilities | divide duties between people | Modern couples increasingly share responsibilities at home. |
| keep in touch | stay in regular contact with someone | We still keep in touch even though we live in different countries. |
| strengthen a bond | make a relationship deeper or more resilient | Traveling together really strengthened our bond. |
| express gratitude | show thankfulness | It's important to express gratitude toward the people who raised you. |
| celebrate a milestone | mark an important achievement or event | We gathered to celebrate my grandmother's milestone birthday. |
Worked example — CELPIP Writing Task 1
Prompt: Write an email to a friend describing how your family celebrated a recent occasion.
Hi Lena,
I wanted to tell you about my parents' anniversary last weekend — we all came together to celebrate the milestone. My siblings and I don't always keep in touch as often as we should, but events like this really strengthen the bond between us. We each took turns to express gratitude for everything our parents did to raise a family while working full-time. My brother, who usually struggles to share responsibilities, actually organized most of the event, which surprised everyone. It reminded me how much effort it takes to build a relationship that lasts decades, and how my parents always managed to resolve a conflict quickly instead of letting it linger. I left feeling grateful that they still offer support to all of us, even now that we're adults.
Talk soon,
Farah
Common mistakes
- Saying "do a family" instead of the correct collocation start a family or raise a family.
- Confusing "keep in touch" with "keep contact" — the correct fixed phrase is keep in touch.
- Using "make a relationship" instead of the natural verb build a relationship.
- Writing "solve a conflict" instead of the more common CELPIP-appropriate collocation resolve a conflict (both exist, but "resolve" is more formal and precise).
- Saying "spend time quality" — the correct word order is spend quality time.
Recap
These twelve verb + noun collocations — build a relationship, raise a family, resolve a conflict, keep in touch, strengthen a bond — give you a precise, natural vocabulary base for describing family and relationship topics across every CELPIP task type.