Learn the key pattern to talk about your spouse and children
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| Let's take a closer look at the conversation. |
| Do you remember how the teacher asks, |
| "Is this your family?" |
| Sadia Simon: Est-ce votre famille ? |
| Let's start with the word, famille, "family." Famille (enunciated). Famille. |
| In French, all nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural. Famille is feminine and singular — a fact that determines the form of other words in the sentence. |
| Before this is votre, meaning "your" when addressing one person in a formal context. Votre (clearly enunciated). Votre. |
| Note votre fundamentally means "your" when addressing more than one person, but it's also a formal way to say “your” when speaking to one person directly using formal French. |
| Now, you might be more familiar with ta, an informal word for "your," as in ta famille, "your family." As this is a conversation between two adults who don't know each other very well, the formal form, votre, is more appropriate. |
| Moving to the start of the sentence, est, "is." Est (enunciated). Est. |
| Est is from the verb être, "to be." être. |
| Next is ce, "this." Ce (enunciated). Ce. |
| Together, it's est-ce meaning "Is this..."Est-ce. |
| Notice the word order when asking a question: est, "is," followed by ce, "this." |
| When this inverted word order occurs in French, there must be a hyphen between the verb and the subject in this case. |
| Est-ce. "Is this…" Est-ce. |
| All together, it's Est-ce votre famille ? "Is this your family?" Est-ce votre famille ? |
| Note the rising intonation of the sentence to indicate that it's a question. |
| Est-ce votre famille ? |
| Remember this question. You'll hear it again later. |
| Let's take a closer look at the response. |
| Do you remember how Karen says, |
| "Yes. This is my husband, my son, my daughter, and me." |
| Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils, ma fille et moi. |
| This starts with the expression oui, meaning "yes." Oui (enunciated). Oui. |
| It answers the teacher's yes-or-no question, "Is this your family?" |
| Est-ce votre famille ? |
| After this, Karen points to the picture, and says, |
| C'est mon mari, mon fils, ma fille et moi. |
| First is c'est meaning "this is." C'est (enunciated). C'est. |
| Note: Ce is contracted with est to form c'est. |
| After this is mon mari. "My husband." Mon mari. |
| Mari, "husband." Mari (enunciated). Mari. |
| Mon. "My." Mon(enunciated). |
| Mon is masculine and singular to agree with mari. |
| Mon mari. |
| Next is mon fils. "My son." Mon fils. |
| Fils, "son." Fils (enunciated). Fils. |
| Mon, "my." |
| Mon is masculine and singular to agree with fils. |
| Mon fils. |
| After this is ma fille, "My daughter." Ma fille. |
| Fille, "daughter." Fille (enunciated). Fille. |
| Ma, "my." Ma (enunciated). |
| Ma is feminine and singular to agree with fille. |
| Ma fille. |
| Next is et, "and." Et (enunciated). Et. |
| And last is moi, "me." Moi (enunciated). Moi. |
| All together, Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils, ma fille et moi. |
| "Yes. This is my husband, my son, my daughter, and me." |
| Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils, ma fille et moi. |
| The pattern is |
| C'est {FAMILY MEMBER}, {FAMILY MEMBER}, {FAMILY MEMBER} et moi. |
| "This is {FAMILY MEMBER}, {FAMILY MEMBER}, {FAMILY MEMBER} and me." |
| To use this pattern, simply replace the {FAMILY MEMBER} placeholder with the appropriate word for "my" and members of your family. Remember that the word for "my" will be mon when your family member is male and ma when your family member is female. |
| Imagine your family members are your wife, your son, your daughter, and you. |
| Femme is "wife." Femme (enunciated). Femme. Femme is feminine and singular. Therefore, "my wife" is ma femme. Ma femme. |
| Say |
| "This is my wife, my son, my daughter, and me." |
| Ready? |
| Mark Lee: C'est ma femme, mon fils, ma fille et moi. |
| Mark Lee: "This is my wife, my son, my daughter, and me." |
| Mark Lee: C'est ma femme, mon fils, ma fille et moi. |
| In French, the femme can mean both "wife" and "woman." |
| The intended meaning is understood through the context of usage. |
| In this lesson, we only use the word femme as "wife." |
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