Meaning & use
child in common
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Meanings
phrasefixed phrase
a son or daughter that two people are both the parents of, especially when they are not married to each other.
Grammar: Used after 'have' or 'share': have a child in common. It is countable in form but usually appears in the singular.
Patterns
- have a child in common
- share a child in common
- have children in common
The court asked whether the couple had a child in common.
They are no longer together, but they share a child in common.
Two people who have a child in common must both support that child.
phrasefixed phraseformallegal
used when two people each have the same child, so that each of them is that child's parent.
Grammar: Often used in legal or official contexts to describe a relationship between adults, not between the child and the parents.
Patterns
- the parents of a child in common
- parties with a child in common
Under the law, a father may gain rights if he has a child in common with the mother.
The two families were joined by a child in common.
Common combinations
- have a child in common
- Do you and your ex-partner have a child in common?
- share a child in common
- Although they never married, they share a child in common.
- children in common
- The former couple have two children in common.
- a child in common with someone
- He has a child in common with a woman he met at college.
- custody of a child in common
- The judge decided custody of the child in common.
Synonyms and how they differ
- shared child
- A looser everyday phrase; 'child in common' is the fixed legal expression.
- joint child
- Used mainly in formal or official writing, and less common than 'child in common'.
Word family
- common adjective
- Shared by two or more people; the word that gives this phrase its meaning.
Commonly confused: child in common or common child? child in common or child in law?
child in common vs common child
'Common child' sounds like a child who is ordinary or typical, so it is not used for a child shared by two parents.
child in common vs child in law
A different phrase meaning a child related by marriage, such as a stepchild.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'child in common' most naturally?
Choose one answer.
The fixed phrase needs the article 'a': have a child in common. Option 1 uses 'common child', which suggests an ordinary child; option 2 drops the article; option 3 adds 'the', which points to one particular child already known to the listener.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “child in common”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.