what are the French words for more distant relatives like second cousins and such? is there general term?

Question

I looked up the word "relatives" in Babelfish but it came up with "parents" and think that's too similar to the english for "parents" which is not what i'm referring to.

Answer 1

"lointains cousins" or "cousins éloignés" are the words used for second degree cousins

Answer 2

Relatives include parents + grand parents + brothers + sisters + cousins + uncles + aunts+ nephews + nieces ... everybody in the family, in french we say "Famille" or "Parents". "Famille" or "Parents" are generic words. "Parents" is also the word for "père et mère" (father and mother). To avoid confusion, choose "family" instead.

If you want to talk only about close family like: mother, father, sisters and brothers ... (may include grandparents and nephews and nieces too), we say " Famille proche" or "Parents proches"

If you want to talk only about distant relatives, we say: "Famille éloignée" or "Parents éloignés"

Answer 3

"Mes Parents" refers to the parents, but the term in old french used to be more generic.
There isn't a term like relatives, but one uses "familles", "parenté".

"lignage" is a word more for genealogy.

Answer 4

Hello,

if it's related to cousins, usually, we say 'germains' when it's direct cousins (kids of your uncle). We say 'au second degré' when it's distant cousins.

The common expression for distant relatives is 'parents éloignés'.