Talking about you and your family in French

• Use possessive adjectives to describe the relationship between family members.

• Possessive adjectives agree with the gender of the thing owned, not the owner.

• Subject pronouns take the place of a noun as the subject of a sentence and are useful when talking about what family members do.

• This guide contains reading and listening practice.

Have a look at the illustration for useful nouns for family members.

Other useful nouns include:

Useful adjectives for describing nationalities and languages include:

Useful adjectives for describing faith:

Remember

In French, there is no need to use a capital letter for adjectives when giving someone’s nationality, language or faith.

For example:

Mes parents sont québécois et catholique. Ils parlent anglais et français.

My parents are from Quebec and are Catholic. They speak English and French.

Useful adjectives for describing gender identity and relationship status include:

Possessive adjectives show whom something or someone belongs to.

To express whom something belongs to (eg my, your, our), use a possessive adjective.

In French, the possessive adjective agrees with the gender of the thing owned, not the owner.

For example:

Nos cousins sont bouddhistes. – Our cousins are Buddhist.

Mon oncle est célibataire et habite avec sa fille. – My uncle is single and lives with his daughter.

Leurs copains sont marocains et francophones. – Their friends are Morrocan and French-speaking.

Mon, ton and son are used instead of ma, ta and sa before a feminine word starting with a vowel or silent 'h'. This makes pronunciation easier.

For example:

Mon amie est suisse. – My (female) friend is Swiss.

In English, the possessive ‘s is used to express possession. In French, de is used.

For example:

C’est le mari de mon frère. - It’s my brother’s husband.

This translates literally as ‘It’s the husband of my brother’.

Remember

When de is followed by le, the two words combine to make du.

When de is followed by les, the two words combine to make des.

For example:

Je ne sais pas l’âge du poisson rouge. – I don’t know the goldfish’s age.

Find out more about possessive adjectives in the Possessive adjectives in French guide.

Read Alex’s blog and answer the questions about themself and their family.

Bonjour, je m’appelle Alex et j’ai seize ans. Je suis québecois et francophone mais je parle anglais et un peu de chinois aussi. Je suis juif et non-binaire. Tout cela fait partie de mon identité !

Ma famille est très importante pour moi. Je n’ai pas de frères ou sœurs mais j’ai douze cousins. J’aime être enfant unique.

Mes parents se sont séparés l’année dernière donc je partage la semaine entre l’appartement de mon père et la maison de ma mère.

Mon père est célibataire mais ma mère va se marier avec son copain la semaine prochaine. Je vais garder mon nom de famille car je ne veux pas prendre le nom de mon nouveau beau-père.

Nous n’avons pas d’animaux en ce moment. Cependant, après le mariage, on va acheter un petit chien. Ça va être trop cool !

Useful verbs for talking about yourself, your family and your friends include:

All Foundation Tier vocabulary listed in this guide can be found on the vocabulary sheet below.

Subject pronouns take the place of a noun as the subject of a sentence – they tell us who or what is doing the action of the verb.

In English, the subject pronouns are I, you, he, she, it, we and they.

In French, there are nine subject pronouns:

Remember

Tu and vous both mean ‘you’.

Use tu for one friend or family member.

Use vous for one person you don’t know or for a group of people.

Did you know?

The most commonly used gender-neutral pronouns in French are iel (they, singular) and iels (they, plural).

For example:

Iel aime rencontrer de nouveaux amis. – They (singular) like meeting new friends.

Iels mangent avec leurs parents. – They (plural) eat with their parents.

Find out more about subject pronouns in the Subject pronouns in French guide.

You hear some young people talking about their families and relationships. For each person, which aspect of their life is mentioned?

Click or tap on the image below for a list of useful vocabulary to use when talking about yourself and others.

Useful nouns for talking about family include:

Useful vocabulary to describe nationality, language and faith include:

Useful verbs to describe relationships include:

All Higher Tier vocabulary listed in this guide can be found on the vocabulary sheet below.

To use ‘nobody’ as the subject of a sentence, use personne ne followed by the third person singular (il / elle / on) form of the verb.

For example:

Personne ne partage ma chambre. – Nobody shares my bedroom.

To use ‘nothing’ as the subject of a sentence, use rien ne followed by the third person singular (il / elle / on) form of the verb.

For example:

Rien ne sépare notre groupe d’amis. – Nothing separates our group of friends.

Find out more about negative subject pronouns in the Subject pronouns in French guide.

Click or tap on the image below for a list of useful Higher Tier vocabulary to use when talking about yourself and others.

Now you have learned about talking about yourself why not look at the Describing relationships guide.