How to Talk About Your Parents and Siblings

Learn how to talk about your parents and siblings

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Lesson Transcript

Welcome to Can-Do French by FrenchPod101.com.

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about your parents and siblings in French.

For example, "Yes. This is my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, and me." is

Oui. C'est mon père, ma mère, mon frère, ma sœur et moi.

Coralie Collin is at a coffee shop with her classmate, Justine Jérôme.

Coralie is showing some pictures to Justine. She points to one of them and asks about the people visible in it.

Before you hear the conversation, let's preview some of its key components.

père

"father"

père

mère

"mother"

mère

frère

"brother"

frère

sœur

"sister"

sœur

Listen to the conversation, and focus on the response.

Ready?

Est-ce ta famille ?

Oui. C'est mon père, ma mère, mon frère, ma sœur et moi.

Once more with the English translation.

Est-ce ta famille ?

"Is this your family?"

Oui. C'est mon père, ma mère, mon frère, ma sœur et moi.

"Yes. This is my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, and me."

Let's break down the conversation.

Do you remember how Justine asks,

"Is this your family?"

Est-ce ta famille ?

Let's start with the word, famille, "family." Famille. 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 famille is ta, meaning "your." Ta. Ta.

Ta is feminine and singular to agree with famille.

Together, it’s ta famille. "Your family." Ta famille.

Moving to the start of the sentence, est, "is.” Est. Est.

Note: est is from the verb, être, meaning "to be." Être.

Next is ce, "this." Ce. 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.

Note the pronunciation of est-ce. Est-ce.

It's pronounced as one sound

Est-ce. “Is this…” Est-ce.

All together, it’s Est-ce ta famille ? "Is this your family?" Est-ce ta famille ?

Note the rising intonation of the sentence to indicate that it’s a question.

Est-ce ta famille ?

Remember this question. You’ll hear it again later.

Let’s take a closer look at the response.

Do you remember how Coralie says,

"Yes. This is my father, my mother, my brother, my sister and me."

Oui. C'est mon père, ma mère, mon frère, ma sœur et moi.

This starts with the expression, oui, meaning "yes." Oui.. Oui.

It answers Justine’s yes-or-no question, "Is this your family?"

Est-ce ta famille ?

After this, Coralie points to the picture and says,

C'est mon père, ma mère, mon frère, ma sœur et moi.

First is c’est meaning "this is." C’est. C’est.

Note: Ce is contracted with est to form c'est.

After this is mon père. "My father." Mon père.

Père, “father.” Père. Père.

Mon. "My." Mon.

Mon is masculine and singular to agree with père.

Mon père.

Next is ma mère. "My mother." Ma mère.

Mère, “mother.” Mère. Mère.

Ma. "My." Ma.

Ma is feminine and singular to agree with mère.

Ma mère.

Next is mon frère. "My brother." Mon frère.

Frère, "brother." Frère. Frère.

Mon. "My."

Mon is masculine and singular to agree with frère.

After this is ma sœur. "My sister." Ma sœur.

Sœur, “sister.” Sœur. Sœur.

Ma. "My."

Ma is feminine and singular to agree with sœur.

Ma sœur.

Next is et. "And." Et. Et.

And last is moi, "me" Moi. Moi.

All together, Oui. C'est mon père, ma mère, mon frère, ma sœur et moi.

"Yes. This is my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, and me."

Oui. C'est mon père, ma mère, mon frère, ma sœur et moi.

The pattern is

C'est FAMILY MEMBER, FAMILY MEMBER, FAMILY MEMBER, FAMILY MEMBER et moi.

This is FAMILY MEMBER, 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, ma when the family member is female, and mes when referring to multiple family members.

Imagine you have two sisters.

Sœurs, "sisters." Sœurs. Sœurs.

Sœurs is feminine and plural — a fact which will determine the form of other words in the sentence.

Before sœurs is mes, "my." Mes. Mes.

Mes is feminine and plural to agree with sœurs.

Note, to refer to "brothers," use Mes frères. Mes frères. Mes frères.

Say

"This is my father, my mother, my sisters, and me."

Ready?

C'est mon père, ma mère, mes sœurs et moi.

"This is my father, my mother, my sisters, and me."

C'est mon père, ma mère, mes sœurs et moi.

Again, the key pattern is

C'est FAMILY MEMBER, FAMILY MEMBER, FAMILY MEMBER, FAMILY MEMBER et moi.

"This is FAMILY MEMBER, FAMILY MEMBER, FAMILY MEMBER, FAMILY MEMBER and me."

Let's look at some examples.

Listen and repeat or speak along with the native speakers.

C'est mon père, ma mère, mon frère, ma sœur et moi.

"This is my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, and me."

C'est mon père, ma mère, mon frère, ma sœur et moi.

C'estmon père, ma mère, mes sœurs et moi.

"This is my father, my mother, my sisters, and me."

C'est mon père, ma mère, mes sœurs et moi.

C'est mon père, ma mère, ma sœur et moi.

"This is my father, my mother, my sister, and me."

C'est mon père, ma mère, ma sœur et moi.

C'est mon père, ma mère, ma sœur, mon frère et moi.

"This is my father, my mother, my sister, my brother, and me."

C'est mon père, ma mère, ma sœur, mon frère et moi.

Mes parents et moi.

"My parents and me."

Mes parents et moi.

Did you notice how the last speaker replaced mon père, ma mère with mes parents?

Mes parents et moi.

"My parents and me."

The phrase, mes parents, means "my parents." Mes parents. Mes parents.

Remember, in French, all nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural. Parents is masculine and plural — a fact that determines the form of other words in the sentence.

Parents. "Parents." Parents. Parents.

Note: Parents is plural form of Parent. Parent. Parent.

Before this is mes. "My." Mes.

Mes is masculine and plural to agree with parents.

Mes parents et moi.

"My parents and me."

Let's review.

Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then repeat after the native speaker, focusing on pronunciation.

Ready?

Do you remember how to say "yes"?

Oui.

And how to say "me"?

Moi.

Do you remember how to say "and"?

Et.

And how to say "sister"?

Sœur.

Do you remember how to say "my sister"?

Ma sœur.

And how to say "mother"?

Mère.

Mère

Do you remember how to say "my mother"?

Ma mère.

And how to say "father"?

Père.

Do you remember how to say "my father"?

Mon père.

Do you remember how Coralie says,

"Yes. This is my father, my mother, my brother, my sister and me."

Oui. C’est mon père, ma mère, mon frère, ma sœur et moi.

Do you remember how to say "family"?

Famille.

Famille

And how to say "your family"?

Ta famille.

Do you remember how Justine asks,

"Is this your family?"

Est-ce ta famille ?

Do you remember how to say "brother?"

Frère.

And how to say "my brother?"

Mon frère.

Let's practice.

Imagine you’re Corentin, Coralie’s younger brother, and you have a father, père, mother, mère, and two sisters, sœurs.

Respond to your friend’s question referring to the photo.

Don’t forget to include the word for "yes" at the beginning of your response.

Ready?

Est-ce ta famille ?

Oui. Ceci est mon père, ma mère, mes sœurs et moi.

Listen again and repeat.

Oui. Ceci est mon père, ma mère, mes sœurs et moi.

Let’s try another.

Imagine you're Coralie's classmate, Noe Najar.

And You have a father, père, mother, mère, and sister, sœur.

Ready?

Est-ce ta famille ?

Oui. C'est mon père, ma mère, ma sœur et moi.

Listen again and repeat.

Oui. C'est mon père, ma mère, ma sœur et moi.

Let’s try one more.

Imagine you’re Coralie's classmate and language-exchange partner, Justine Jerome.

You have a father, père, mother, mère, sister, sœur and a brother, frère.

Ready?

Est-ce ta famille ?

Oui. C'est mon père, ma mère, ma sœur, mon frère et moi.

Listen again and repeat.

Oui. C'est mon père, ma mère, ma sœur, mon frère et moi.

Well Done! This is the end of this lesson.

In this lesson, you learned how to talk about your parents and siblings, an essential skill for talking about your family.

Remember, these Can Do lessons are about learning practical language skills.

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