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Meet the family

Family words come in neat masculine/feminine pairs:

Masculine Feminine English
le père la mère father / mother
le frère la sœur brother / sister
le fils la fille son / daughter
le grand-père la grand-mère grandfather / grandmother
l'oncle la tante uncle / aunt
le cousin la cousine cousin
le mari la femme husband / wife
  • Fils is said “feess”: the l is silent and the s is sounded.
  • La fille is also the girl, and la femme is also the woman — it sounds like “fam”.
  • At home you'll hear papa, maman, papi, mamie. Marcos's family is Brazilian — they moved to France when he was about ten — so at their house Grandma is called Vovó, Portuguese for Grandma.

To introduce someone, say Voici… — Voici mon père. (This is my father.) Or, a little more formally, Je vous présente… — Je vous présente ma mère. (May I introduce my mother.)