Leçon 2

Family is very important in any culture, so do the French. Unlike in English where the words ‘in-law’ and ‘step-‘ mean something different, in French, any words about relationships by marriage use the same word ‘beau-‘ for male and ‘belle-‘ for females. For instance, brother-in-law and step-brother are beau-frère in French.

In this section, you are required to know the direct article ‘the’, and the indirect article ‘a’ or ‘an’. In English, the word ‘the’ can be used for any noun.

In French, all nouns are divided into two genders – male (masculine) or female (feminine). Besides that, nouns are then looked upon in their numbers, either singular or plural. Finally, when it is singular, a noun is also looked at whether it starts with a consonant or a vowel.

In this section, you will learn how to say words pertaining to a ‘family’ and numbers from 0 to 10.

Direct Article (‘The’)

Gender	Singular	Meaning	Plural	Meaning	Example
Masculine	un añ	a, an	des day	some	un père un enfant des frères
Feminine	une ewn	a, an	des	some	une mère une automobile des soeurs

Indirect Article (‘a’, ‘an’, ‘some’)

Gender	Starts with consonant (singular)	Starts with vowel (singular)	Plural	Example
Masculine	le luh	l’	les lay	le père l’enfant les frères
Feminine	la lah	l’	les	la mère l’automobile les soeurs

Useful Words & Phrases

Male Family Member		Plural	Female Family Member	Plural
le père luh pair	father	les pères lay pair	la mère lah mair	mother	les mères lay mair
le frère luh frair	brother	les frères lay frair	la soeur lah suhr	sister	les soeurs lay suhr
le grand-père luh grañ-pair	grandfather	les grand-pères lay grañ-pair	la grand-mère lah grañ-mair	grandmother	les grand-mères lay grañ-mair
le fils luh fees	son	les fils lay fees	la fille lah feeyuh	daughter	les filles lay feeyuh
l’oncle loñkluh	uncle	les oncles lay zoñkluh	la tante lah tañtuh	aunt	les tantes lay tañtuh
le neveu luh nuhvuh	nephew	les neveux lay nuhvuh	la nièce lah nee-yes	niece	les nièces lay nee-yes
le cousin luh koozañ	cousin	les cousins lay koozañ	la cousine lah koozeen	cousin	les cousines lay koozeen
le beau- luh bo	-in-law/step-	les beaux- lay bo	la belle- lah bel	-in-law/step-	les belles- lay bel
le demi- luh duhmee	half-	les demi- lay duhmee	la demi- lah duhmee	half-	les demi- lay duhmee
l’enfant lañfañ	child	les enfants lay zañfañ	l’enfant lañfañ	child	les enfants
le mari luh mahree	husband	les maris lay mahree	la femme lah fahm	wife	les femmes lay fahm

Numbers

0	zéro zay-row	1	un/une añ/ewn	2	deux duh	3	trois trwa	4	quatre katruh
5	cinq sank	6	six sees	7	sept set	8	huit weet	9	neuf nuhf
10	dix dees

First, let’s try to say “I have” in French. It is “J’ai [zhay]”.

J’ai trois soeurs zhay trwa suhr	I have three sisters
J’ai un frère zhay añ frair	I have a brother
J’ai une mère zhay ewn mair	I have a mother
J’ai quatre cousins, deux cousines, cinq neveux et aucune nièce zhay katruh koozañ, duh koozeen, sank nuhvuh ay ohkewn nee-yes	I have four male cousins, two female cousins, five nephews and no niece.