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Family members in French : les membres de la famille
In this lesson, You will be learning the basic vocabulary of the family in French. You will learn for instance how to say words like mother and father, brother and sister, and more family members in French language.
1. Essential French Words to know about the family
The french word for family is la famille. Un membre de la famille is a family member in French.
Un arbre généalogique is the French equivalent of the English family tree.
In a regular family, we can have the following members.
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le père: father
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la mère: mother
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les parents : parents/relatives
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le frère : brother
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la soeur : sister
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le bébé : baby
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les enfants : children
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le grand-père : grandfather
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la grand-mère: grandmother
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les grands-parents: grand parents
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l'oncle: uncle
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la tante: aunt
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le cousin : cousin (male)
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la cousine (female)
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la nièce : niece
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le neveu : nephew
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le fils : son
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la fille : daughter
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le petit-fils : grandson
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la petite-fille : grand daughter
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les petits-enfants: grandchildren
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l'arrière-grand-mère: great grandmother
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l'arrière-grand-père: great grandfather
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les arrières-grands-parents: great grandparents
This list is not exhaustive. We will see soon la belle famille (the inlaws and the stepfamily) in another section.
Note that the French word parent means a parent (father or mother) but it can also be used for the English word "relative".
2. Hierarchy in the family
When talking about hierarchy in the family members, we can use the vocabulary below
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un aîné/une aînée : first born son/daughter of the family. It can also mean any elder brother/sister or the eldest brother/sister.
Example :
Katy est ma fille aînée. (Katy is my eldest daughter).
Alice était ma soeur aînée. (Alice was my eldest sister).
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un cadet/une cadette : the younger brother/sister or the second-born son/daughter of a family
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le benjamin/la benjamine : the youngest child
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les aïeuls/ aïeules : refer to the grandparents. We talk about aïeuls maternelsparternels.
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les aïeux : ancestors.
3. How to use this vocabulary to talk about your family members
You can use the family vocabulary with the verb Être (to be) if you want to talk about the personality, feelings, health, ... of one of your family members.
Example :
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Mon père est malade. => My father is sick.
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La soeur de Martin est gentille. => Martin's sister is kind.
You can use the verb avoir to say how many relatives you have.
Example
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J'ai un frère et deux soeurs. => I have one brother and two sisters.
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Je n'ai pas de soeur. => I don't have a sister.
You can also use it with " Il y a" which means there is/there are, to tell the number of people that are in your family or household.
Example
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Il y a trois personnes dans ma famille. => There are three people in my family.
4. Test your knowledge about family members in French
Here is a short exercise for you to practice the vocabulary of the family in French you have just learned. Click on the box below to start the quiz.
Happy learning !
Our recommendation
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Learn French online with a structured program => Lingoda
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Affordable French Conversation classes online => Italki
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Learn French with fun from your phone => Rocket languages, Mondly, Busuu