français · A1 · vocabulary · 4 minutes
Close family
Introduce relatives and show who belongs to whom.
Understand the choice
Family vocabulary teaches possessives immediately. Store each relative with mon, ma, or mes and notice the special use of mon before a feminine noun beginning with a vowel sound, as in mon amie.
Core rule: Possessive determiners agree with the possessed noun, not with the owner: ma mère, mon père, mes parents.
Notice it in context
Ma mère, mon père et ma sœur habitent près d’ici.
My mother, my father, and my sister live near here.
Ma and mon match the following nouns; habitent is plural because three relatives form the subject.
Mes grands-parents ont trois fils.
My grandparents have three sons.
Mes marks a plural possession; fils keeps its final -s in singular and plural.
Tu as des frères et sœurs ?
Do you have brothers and sisters?
The fixed inclusive order frères et sœurs is common when asking about siblings.
What to remember
- Parents means parents; proches or membres de la famille is broader than English relatives.
- Fille can mean daughter or girl, and fils can mean son; context supplies the relationship.
Common trap: Do not translate “my mother” according to the speaker’s gender. Every speaker says ma mère because mère is feminine.