my family essay in french pdf

Writing About Family in French - Beginner Lesson

• Brian J. Donovan
• Categories : French lesson plans for secondary grades 6 12
• Tags : Teaching english speaking students a second language

Discussing Family in French

Language level: I try to make all of my lessons easily adaptable to different levels, but this is geared more towards beginners. For more advanced students, it will be review. For this lesson on writing about the family in French, your students will begin by learning basic family vocabulary, and they’ll pull together the basics they’ve already learned about simple sentence structure and verbs like être and avoir.

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Grade level: 6 or 7 through university Format: I’ve kept the format very simple to avoid too many layout issues. Paste the text into a document, and you can make the changes you’d like to make. I’ve given you a Student Section (below) which you can copy to a document, so you have something to hand out to your students. Your students will be able to follow along and make notes on the page as you talk about the different parts of the lesson. This Teacher Section will have tips and suggestions to share with them.

Writing about Family in French: Teacher Section

*Teacher: Some students aren’t comfortable talking about their families, so I tell them it’s ok to make it up! The whole point is to use the vocabulary and to put together sentences. A. Le Vocabulaire / Vocabulary Begin by introducing basic vocabulary. I use un/une a lot, and always tell my students to learn words with those, so they’ll more easily remember the gender. It’s not as important with a word whose gender is obvious, but it’s a good practice. (Note: be sure to remind them about le and la becoming l’.) 1. Qui / Who: *Teacher: You may have to add words to fit different family make-ups. Hint: If “sœur” is difficult for them, remind them to ignore the -o and that leaves them with -eu.

• une mère / mother
• un père / father
• un fils / son
• un garçon / boy
• un frère / brother
• une fille / daughter, girl
• un mari / husband
• un homme / man
• une femme / wife, woman
• un grand-père / grandfather
• un petit-fils / grandson
• une tante / aunt
• un oncle / uncle
• un cousin / male cousin
• une cousine / female cousin
• une sœur / sister
• un(e) enfant / child
• une nièce / niece
• un neveu (-x) / nephew
• une grand-mère / grandmother
• une petite-fille / granddaughter

2. L’État Civil / Marital Status: *Teacher: Once again, you may have to add words to fit different family make-ups. Remind them of the difference between “mari” and “marié.”

• célibataire / single
• fiancé(e) / engaged
• décédé(e) / deceased
• veuf / veuve / widower / widow
• marié(e) / married
• divorcé(e) / divorced
• remarié(e) / remarried

3. Les Adjectifs Possessifs / Possessive Adjectives: Possessive adjectives personalize your writings about your family. You wouldn’t want to constantly say, “I have a mother. I have a brother. I have an aunt.” You can use the different forms of “my” (mon, ma, mes) to vary your sentences. 4. Les Verbes / Verbs: You won’t need a lot of verbs to talk about your family: Être, avoir and habiter should be enough for most descriptions. *Teacher: I find examples often work best, but if you’d like you can spend time talking about the basic verbs they’ll need–or even ask them what verbs they think they’ll need! I have sample sentences for you in section II. Don’t forget to talk about “habiter” (live, reside/where) with a city, with states and streets, and how it differs from “vivre” (live/how, when). You may also want to talk about the difference between using “chez” and “avec.” B. Les Phrases / Sentences *Teacher: Examples tend to work best, so I’ve included some basic sentences to cover many situations. You can add as many as you’d like, and your students can take notes on their copies. Don’t forget to remind your students to also use words like “et” and “mais” to vary the sentences more. 1. Qui / Who (with verbs):

a. J’ai un frère/une sœur. J’ai deux frères./deux sœurs.

b. J’ai un petit frère/une petite sœur. J’ai un grand frère/une grande sœur.

*You can also teach aîné, cadet, etc. It’s depends on how much time you have to spend on the family lesson.

c. Je n’ai pas de frère(s)./pas de sœur(s). **Teacher: Remind them that the noun can be singular or plural, but that they’ll still use de/d’ in the negative in many cases…

d. On n’a pas d’animaux.

*Teacher: d’/vowel

e. C’est le frère de mon père. Le mari de ma tante (mon oncle) est décédé. (mort(e))

f. Mon oncle s’appelle Marc. Ma tante s’appelle Marie.

g. J’ai un oncle qui s’appelle Marc et il a 50 ans.

h. Mes parents s’appellent Sophie et Pierre. Mes parents sont Sophie et Pierre.

2. L’État Civil / Marital Status:

a. Mon frère est marié. Ma sœur n’est pas mariée.

b. Mes parents sont divorcés. Ma sœur est divorcée.

c. Je ne suis pas marié(e). Je suis célibataire.

d. J’ai un frère/une sœur qui n’est pas marié(e).

3. L’Age / Age:

a. Mon frère a 14 (quatorze) mois. Mon frère a 1 (un) an.

b. Mon frère a 9 (neuf) ans.

c. Mes deux sœurs ont 13 (treize) ans et 14 (quatorze) ans.

4. Où ? / Where?:

a. J’habite à Boston. **Teacher: à + ville

b. Mes parents habitent en Californie. / en Floride. / dans le Vermont. **Teacher: masculine & feminine//au

c. Mon grand-père habite avec un ami. / Mon grand-père habite chez ma tante. / tout(e) seul(e)

d. Mon cousin habite 9 Rue Corbert. Ma tante habite une grande maison/un bel appartement.

e. Mes grands-parents sont en France. / au Méxique.

Follow these additional French study guides for more practice!

• French cuisine
• The completed past

Student Section

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The Ultimate Guide to Talking About Your Family in French

It probably doesn’t sound that difficult to converse without mentioning family.

Think about it, though. How often in a conversation do you say something like, “Sorry, my dad keeps texting me.”

“Oh, you like my sweater? Thanks! My husband gave it to me for Christmas.”

The list of ways our family members come up in conversation is endless, so we’ve put together this post to help you out. Ready to start talking about family in French?

French Vocabulary Related to Family

Your immediate family, your extended family, introducing family members in french, formal introductions, informal introductions, practice talking about family in french, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Before we get into situations and phrases, let’s start with the basics. What is the French translation for terms related to family members?

• Les parents (parents, or in a more generic sense, relatives of any kind)
• La mère (mother)
• Le père (father)
• La maman (mom or mommy)
• Le papa (dad or daddy)
• Le frère (brother)
• La sœur (sister)
• Les frères et sœurs (siblings)

That’s right, there’s no word for “siblings.” You just have to say “brothers and sisters.”

• La fille (daughter)
• Le fils (son)
• Les grands-parents (grandparents)
• La grand-mère (grandmother)
• Le grand-père (grandfather)
• La mémé (grandma)
• Le pépé (granddad)
• Les petits-enfants (grandchildren)
• La petite-fille (granddaughter)
• Le petit-fils (grandson)
• L’époux / l’épouse    (spouse)
• Le mari (husband)
• La femme (wife)
• La belle-mère (mother-in-law)

The “in-laws” literally translate to “beautiful mother,” “handsome father,” etc. This translation really removes the negative stigma typically associated with in-laws!

• Le beau-père (father-in-law)
• Le beau-frère (brother-in-law)
• La belle-sœur (sister-in-law)
• La belle-fille (daughter-in-law)
• Le beau-fils (son-in-law)
• La belle-mère (stepmother)

You’ll notice that the “in-laws” and “steps” both translate to the same word. Confusing, isn’t it?

• Le beau-père (stepfather)
• Le beau-frère (stepbrother)
• La belle-sœur (stepsister)
• La belle-fille (stepdaughter)
• Le beau-fils (stepson)
• Le demi-frère (half-brother)
• La demi-sœur (half-sister)

• La cousine (female cousin)
• Le cousin (male cousin)
• Les cousins / les cousines (male or mixture of male and female cousins/female cousins)
• L’oncle (uncle)
• La tante (aunt)
• Le neveu (nephew)
• La nièce (niece)

These are the phrases you would whip out at those work and social events, when having people over to your family’s home or if you run into someone you know on the street while out with a family member.

You would use these phrases when introducing family members at an event, or to elders and people you respect.

• Je vous présente… (I present to you…)

Remember to use vous to talk to people who are older or in a position of authority. For example, you might use this phrase when you introduce a family member to your boss or to a friend’s parent.

Monsieur, je vous présente mon mari, Daniel. (Sir, I present to you my husband, Daniel.)

Bonjour, Madame Thierry! Je vous présente ma mère.  (Hello, Mrs. Thierry! I present to you my mother.)

• Je te présente… (I present to you…)

Use the tu form when speaking to a friend, an equal or someone younger than yourself. In this case, you are introducing a family member to someone who fits this profile, but while using a more formal structure:

Salut, Brigitte! Je te présente mon beau-frère, Charles. Charles, Brigitte est ma camarade de classe. (Hi, Brigitte! I present to you my brother, Charles. Charles, Brigitte is my classmate.)

• Il s’appelle… / Elle s’appelle… (His/her name is…)

Je te présente mon oncle. Il s’appelle Nico.  (I present to you my uncle. His name is Nico.)

Bonjour, madame. Je vous présente ma tante. Elle s’appelle Esther. (Hello, ma’am. I present to you my aunt. Her name is Esther.)

You would use these informal introductions with your close pals. Sometimes people use these terms as quick introductions if they are in a hurry or distracted. Let’s say your mom randomly walks into the room while you guys are playing video games. You don’t have time for formalities, you’ve got dragons to kill!

• C’est… (This is…)

C’est is a casual way to say, “This is.”

Salut! C’est mon cousin. (Hi! This is my cousin.)

• Voilà… (Here is…)

This would be used in a situation when you are surprised to see someone. For example, if you weren’t expecting a family member to walk in at that moment, you use voilà  as a quick announcement of their arrival.

Oh, voilà  ma femme!  (Oh, here is my wife!)

I bet you didn’t even think about how many family members existed until you saw that list. But don’t be overwhelmed! There are plenty of free online learning tools where you can practice memorizing all this vocabulary. Check out these simple exercises on The French Experiment . 

Even watching videos in French can help you get used to new vocabulary. There are limitless videos to be found on YouTube .

Of course, you can talk in-depth about your family for hours.

But hopefully these basics will get you started!

This way, when a date or coworker asks you about your family, you won’t have to go hide out in the bathroom to avoid the conversation.

FluentU has a wide variety of great content, like interviews, documentary excerpts and web series, as you can see here:

FluentU brings native French videos with reach. With interactive captions, you can tap on any word to see an image, definition and useful examples.

For example, if you tap on the word "crois," you'll see this:

Practice and reinforce all the vocabulary you've learned in a given video with learn mode. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning, and play the mini-games found in our dynamic flashcards, like "fill in the blank."

All throughout, FluentU tracks the vocabulary that you’re learning and uses this information to give you a totally personalized experience. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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Aujourd’hui, je vais te présenter ma famille. Je m’appelle Laurent et j’habite à Paris avec mes parents, ma sœur ainée et mon frère. Je vais à l’école pendant la journée. Mon père s’appelle Alain. Il travaille en ville. Ma mère Gertrude tient une mercerie.

Pendant les grandes vacances, nous allons à la campagne chez mes grands-parents. Mon grand-père nous adore et nous offre de nombreux cadeaux. Ma tante Marcelline habite près de chez eux. Parfois, ma grand-mère Marie l’invite à la maison pour le déjeuner. Elle vient avec son mari et mes cousins Lionel et Marcel. Nous passons de bons moments à jouer ensemble dans le jardin.

Ma sœur ainée a 14 ans. Elle joue du violon comme un grand artiste. Mon frère Patrice est plus jeune que moi. Il va à l’école des petits. Il sait écrire son nom. Chaque soir, j’accompagne ma mère en vélo pour faire une promenade dans le parc avec notre chien Snowy.

Mon deuxième oncle Louis dit qu’il a des neveux adorables. Sa femme Maryse est institutrice. Ils ont deux enfants : un fils qui s’appelle André et une fille qui est très gentille. J’aime beaucoup toute ma famille.

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