How many people are in your house right now? Hold up that many fingers, then say the number in French. You already know the numbers; today we put them with family words.
If you held up more than six, your house is déjà une grande famille: we will need every word today!
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Name seven family members in French
- Say how many people are in your family and how old someone is
- Sort each family word by le or la
Meet the Dupont-Martin family from Lyon. Listen to each family word, then say it back together. Watch which take le and which take la, and listen for the soft r at the end of mère, père and frère.
Then we build full sentences about how many people are in a family and how old someone is, using mon and ma.
mon goes with le words, ma with la words.
- Il y a cinq personnes dans ma famille. (There are five people in my family.)
- Mon frère a huit ans. (My brother is eight.)
- Ma sœur a onze ans. (My sister is eleven.)
We will hear two children, Claire and Luc, talk about their brothers and sisters, twice. Listen for frère and sœur. Then answer the questions on the board together.
First whisper your two sentences to yourself or a neighbour, using the patterns on the board. Then open your copy and write them: how many people in the family, and one person's age. You may write about your own family or about the Dupont-Martin family. Take care with accents and with mon / ma.
- la mère — mother
- le père — father
- le frère — brother
- la sœur — sister
- le grand-père — grandfather
- la grand-mère — grandmother
- la tante — aunt
Drag each family word into the le column or the la column. Say the word quietly as you place it, article first.
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