Family members in French

As this is a course for beginners, knowing how to say family members in French is indispensable. The lesson is divided in two subtitles, first we will talk about close family members and in the second part about family-in-law.

Lesson outline

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1.Family tree and how to say family in French?
2.Members of Family in-law in French
3.Exercises
3.1.Matching family members in French
3.2.Family members: exercise
3.3.Close family and family-in-law members: exercise

Family tree and how to say family in French?

In French the world 'family' we translate as 'famille', it' consists of close relatives, such as your father, sister, oncle ect. See the examples in the table below.

English	French
parents	les parents
mother	la maman la mère
father	le papa le père
children	les enfants
son	le fils
daughter	la fille
nephew	le neveu
niece	la nièce
brother	le frère
sister	la soeur
aunt	la tante
uncle	l'oncle
godfather	le parrain
godmother	la marraine
grandparents	les grands-parents
grandmother	la grand-mère
grandfather	le grand-père
grandson	le petit-fils
grand-daughter	la petite-fille

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Members of Family in-law in French

Your family in-law is formed on the one hand by the members of your spouse's family. But it can also be formed by the family members of a remarriage, for example after a divorce. Here is a detailed list of vocabulary to describe your family in-laws:

English	French
family-in-law	La belle-famille (du côté du conjoint)
stepparents	Les beaux-parents (d’un remariage)
parents-in-law	Les beaux-parents (du côté du conjoint)
stepfather	Le beau-père (d’un remariage)
stepmother	La belle-mère (d’un remariage)
mother in law	La belle-mère (du côté du conjoint)
stepdaughter	La belle-fille (d’un remariage)
daughter-in-law	La belle-fille (du côté du conjoint)
stepson	Le beau-fils (d’un remariage)
son-in-law	Le gendre (du côté du conjoint)
sister-in-law	La belle-sœur (du côté du conjoint)
sister-in-law	La belle-sœur (d’un remariage)
brother-in-law	Le beau-frère (du côté du conjoint)
brother-in-law	Le beau-frère (d’un remariage)

In this context there are few related verbs to remember, as divorce 'être divorcé', get married 'se marier', marry 'épouser', le/la conjoint/e 'husband/wife'.

For example: My parents are divorced. = Mes parents sont divorcés.

Your sister-in-law is a sister of your husband. = Ta belle-soeur est la soeur de ton conjoint.

Her sister just got married. = Sa soeur est juste marié.

Attention!

Pay attention that in English we distinguish stepdaughter (spouse's female child) and daughter-in-law (son's wife), while in French both words can be translated as 'la belle-soeur'. The same rule is applied to 'stepmother' and 'mother-in-law', both translated as 'la belle-mère', and stepparents and parents-in-law which are translated 'les beaux-parents'.