It's a stereotype, but for good reason: in Italy, family is important.

So important, in fact, that Italian has words for family members that we never got round to inventing in English.

One such is consuocero (pronounced “con-swotch-ero”), which refers to your own child's father-in-law (or your son-/daughter-in-law's father, depending on how you look at it). 

Naturally there's a version for your child's mother-in-law too: consuocera.

Your own in-laws are your suoceri ('parents-in-law'), so adding the joining prefix con~ turns the word into something like 'co-parents-in-law'.

Mio padre è il consuocero del padre di mio marito.
My dad is the co-father-in-law of my husband's dad.

Mia madre è la consuocera della madre di mia moglie.
My mum is the co-mother-in-law of my wife's mum.

I consuoceri sono i suoceri del proprio figlio.
Co-parents-in-law are your child's in-laws.

It's a term we just don't have in English, and it testifies to the fact that in Italy it's assumed you'll not only know your child's in-laws, you'll want to talk about them to other people. A lot. So much you need a special word for them.

Get used to it!

Do you have an Italian phrase you'd like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.