Asking about someones family: Family members and relatives

💬 La femme means both wife and woman. With ma in front, it means my wife.

💬 Grand stays the same here even though mère is feminine: it's grand-mère, not grande-mère.

💬 In the plural both halves take an s: grands-parents. The s's are silent, so it sounds the same as the singular apart from les.

💬 Le shrinks to l' before a vowel and joins the word, so you hear one sound: l'oncle.

🇫🇷 Children often say tata for an aunt and tonton for an uncle, and many adults keep using those words affectionately.

💬 Male cousin ends in a nasal sound with no n spoken (koo-zan). Female cousine sounds the n clearly (koo-zeen).

💬 The plural adds x, not s: les neveux. It sounds just the same.

💬 "My" matches the family member, not you: ma for female words like ma mère, mon for male ones like mon frère.

💬 Ta goes with tu. If you call someone vous, switch to votre famille.

🇫🇷 Use votre with people you'd call vous: a neighbour, a colleague you don't know well, or an older person. Switching to ta too early can come across as overly familiar.

💬 J'ai + a person is the go-to pattern: swap in J'ai une sœur or J'ai deux enfants.

💬 The x in deux links to a following vowel as a z sound, as in deux enfants (duh-zahn-fahn). Before sœurs it stays silent.

💬 No "an" here: French says je suis enfant unique, just as it says je suis professeur "I'm a teacher" for jobs.

💬 French uses "and" here where English says "or": des frères et sœurs covers siblings in general. Both final s are silent, so plural sounds just like singular.

💬 Saying a plain statement with a rising voice turns it into a question, the everyday spoken way. Swap the noun to reuse it: Tu as des enfants ? "Do you have children?"

💬 Fille means both girl and daughter, so une fille can answer "a girl" or "a daughter". The ll sounds like a y: (fee-y).

💬 French needs des "some" here, where English just says "children". The s of des links into enfants: (day-zahn-fahn).

💬 Each person gets their own little word: un for a son, une for a daughter. Change it to fit the word, as in un frère et une sœur.

💬 After combien use de, which becomes d' before a vowel: combien de frères, combien d'enfants.

💬 Asking a woman, it's written mariée, but it sounds exactly the same.

🇫🇷 Asking a new acquaintance whether they're married can feel a bit personal in France. It's usually better to let it come up naturally.

💬 French asks "how is your brother called": s'appelle "is called". Swap in any relative: Comment s'appelle ta sœur ?

💬 The l of quel runs straight into âge, so it sounds like one word: (kell-ahzh).

💬 French doesn't say "is" for age, it says "has": a "has". So it's literally "what age has your sister?"

💬 Age uses "have" plus ans "years", and you can't drop ans. Swap in yourself: J'ai trente ans "I'm thirty".

💬 Tes is the "your" for more than one, used with tu. It sounds like (tay), and before a vowel it links: tes enfants (tay-zahn-fahn).

💬 The ending -ent in habitent is silent, so it sounds exactly like habite.

💬 Use à for cities: à Paris, à Lyon. Countries usually take en, as in en France.

💬 Petite comes before famille, unlike most describing words in French. Its final t is spoken here because of the e.

💬 This is a normal statement turned into a question just by raising your voice at the end. It's the easiest way to ask things in everyday French.