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Bonjour! Today, we will learn how to talk about family members in French.
In French, we use different words for family members just like in English. We also have to pay attention to whether a family member is masculine or feminine.
Let us start with parents! The French word for father is 'le père'. The French word for mother is 'la mère'. Notice how 'le' is for boys and 'la' is for girls.
Now let us look at brothers and sisters. A brother is 'le frère'. A sister is 'la sœur'. We use 'le' for brother because it is masculine, and 'la' for sister because it is feminine.
✏️ Worked example
Imagine you want to introduce your family in French. You have one brother and one mother. How do you write 'the brother and the mother' in French?
- Step 1: Look at the first person, the brother. Brother is a masculine word in French.
- Step 2: Choose the correct word for 'the' for a boy. That word is 'le'.
- Step 3: Combine 'le' with the French word for brother, which is 'frère'. You get 'le frère'.
- Step 4: Look at the second person, the mother. Mother is a feminine word in French.
- Step 5: Choose the correct word for 'the' for a girl. That word is 'la'.
- Step 6: Combine 'la' with the French word for mother, which is 'mère'. You get 'la mère'. Put it all together: 'le frère et la mère'!
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