How to Talk About Your Spouse and Children

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Vocabulary (Review)

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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 spouse and children in French.

For example, "This is my husband, my son, my two daughters, and me." is

C'est mon mari, mon fils, mes deux filles et moi.

Constance Collin is studying with her French teacher, Sadia Simon.

The teacher notices a picture on Constance's computer and asks about the people visible in the picture.

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

mari

"husband"

mari

fils

"son"

fils

filles

"daughters"

filles

Listen to the conversation, and focus on the response.

Note: the teacher uses formal French.

Ready?

Est-ce votre famille ?

Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils, mes deux filles et moi.

Once more with the English translation.

Est-ce votre famille ?

"Is this your family?"

Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils, mes deux filles et moi.

"Yes. This is my husband, my son, my daughter, and me."

Let's break down the conversation.

Do you remember how the teacher asks,

"Is this your family?"

Est-ce votre 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 this is votre, meaning "your" when addressing one person in a formal context. Votre. 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. Est.

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.

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 Constance says,

"Yes. This is my husband, my son, my daughter, and me."

Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils, mes deux filles et moi.

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

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

Est-ce votre famille ?

After this, Constance points to the picture, and says,

C'est mon mari, mon fils, mes deux filles 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 mari. "My husband." Mon mari.

Mari, "husband." Mari. Mari.

Mon. "My." Mon.

Mon is masculine and singular to agree with mari.

Mon mari.

Next is mon fils. "My son." Mon fils.

Fils, "son." Fils. Fils.

Mon. "My."

Mon is masculine and singular to agree with fils.

Mon fils.

After this is mes deux filles, "my two daughters." Mes deux fils.

filles, “daughters.” Filles.

Filles is feminine and plural — a fact that determines the form of other words in the sentence.

Note, filles is from the word fille, meaning "daughter." Fille.

Before this is deux. "Two." Deux. Deux.

Together, deux filles, "two daughters." Deux filles.

Before this is mes. "My." Mes. Mes.

Mes is feminine and plural to agree with filles.

To refer to “two sons,” use deux fils. "two sons." Deux fils.

Therefore mes deux fils, "my two sons." Mes deux fils.

Earlier in the lesson, fils translated as “son.” In this case, fils translates as “sons,” as there are two sons, deux fils.

Next is et, "and." Et. Et.

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

All together, Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils, meus deux filles et moi.

"Yes. This is my husband, my son, my two daughters, and me."

Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils, mes deux filles 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 daughters, and you.

Femme is "wife." Femme. Femme. Femme is feminine and singular. Therefore, "my wife" is ma femme. Ma femme.

Say

"This is my wife, my son, my daughters, and me."

Ready?

C'est ma femme, mon fils, mes deux filles et moi.

"This is my wife, my son, my two daughters, and me."

C'est ma femme, mon fils, mes deux filles et moi.

In French, the word 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."

Again, the key pattern is

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

"This is 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 mari, mon fils, mes deux filles et moi.

"This is my husband, my son, my two daughters, and me."

C'est mon mari, mon fils, mes deux filles et moi.

C'est ma femme, mon fils, mes deux filles et moi.

"This is my wife, my son, my two daughters, and me."

C'est ma femme, mon fils, mes deux filles et moi.

C'est ma femme, ma fille et moi.

"This is my wife, my daughter, and me."

C'est ma femme, ma fille et moi.

C'est mon mari, mon fils et moi.

"This is my husband, my son, and me."

C'est mon mari, mon fils et moi.

C'est mon mari, mes deux fils et moi.

"This is my husband, my two sons, and me."

C'est mon mari, mes deux fils et moi.

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 "daughter?"

Fille.

Do you remember how to say "my daughter?"

Ma fille.

And how to say "son?"

Fils.

Do you remember how to say "my son?"

Mon fils.

And how to say "husband?"

Mari.

Do you remember how to say "my husband?"

Mon mari.

Do you remember how Constance says,

"Yes. This is my family: my husband, my son, my two daughters and me."

Oui, c’est mon mari, mon fils, mes deux filles et moi.

Do you remember how to say "family"?

Famille.

Famille

And the formal way to say "your family?"

Votre famille.

And do you remember how Sadia Simon asks,

"Is this your family?"

Est-ce votre famille ?

Do you remember how to say "wife?"

Femme.

And how to say "my wife?"

Ma femme.

Let's practice.

Imagine you're Christophe's colleague, Paul Petit.

And You have a wife, femme, and a daughter, fille.

Respond to Christophe’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. C'est ma femme, ma fille et moi.

Listen again and repeat.

Oui. C'est ma femme, ma fille et moi.

Let’s try another.

Imagine you're Denise Dumont.

And You have a husband, mari, a daughter, fille and a son, fils.

Ready?

Est-ce votre famille ?

Oui. C'est mon mari, ma fille, mon fils et moi.

Listen again and repeat.

Oui. C'est mon mari, ma fille, mon fils et moi.

Let’s try one more.

Imagine you're Christophe's friend, Valerie Villaume.

You have a husband, mari and a son, fils.

Ready?

Est-ce ta famille ?

Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils et moi.

Listen again and repeat.

Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils et moi.

Did you notice how Christophe uses ta famille when asking about his friend’s families?

Est-ce ta famille ?

"Is this your family?"

In less formal situations, when speaking with a friend or close colleague, the less formal, ta, as in ta famille, is more appropriate.

Ta, “your.” Ta. Ta.

Note: Ta is feminine and singular to agree with famille.

In this lesson, you learned how to talk about your spouse and children in French. This plays an essential role in the larger skill of talking about family. Let’s review the family members.

Do you remember how to say "sister”?

sœur

And how to say "my sister”?

ma sœur

Do you remember how to say "brother?"

frère

And how to say "mother”?

mère

Do you remember how to say "father”?

père

Imagine you're Ben Lee , and you have a mother, father and sister.

Respond to your classmate Noe Najar , who sees a picture in your wallet, and asks for the people in it.

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.

Now imagine that you're Ben's mother, Karen Lee , and your friend asks about the people in the picture on your phone.

Est-ce votre famille ?

Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils, ma fille et moi.

Listen again, and repeat.

Oui. C'est mon mari, mon fils, ma fille et moi.

Well done! This is the end of the lesson and the Can Talk About Family unit of this course.

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

What's next?

Show us what you can do.

When you're ready, take your assessment.

You can take it again and again, so try anytime you like.

Our teachers will assess it, and give you your results.

Keep practicing — and move on to the next lesson!

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