German for Beginners
Lesson 9: Meine Familie und ich
Talking about family and relations
With audio 
In this lesson we introduce vocabulary and grammar related to talking about your family and yourself. You'll learn words and phrases that will let you talk about your own family in German, as well as understand what someone else says about his or her family. You can also listen to the vocabulary!
In addition to the members of a family (die Familie, dee fah-MILL-yah), you'll learn how to ask someone's name (and answer), talk about family relationships and give the ages of people. We will also discuss the difference between the formal and informal “you” in German — a vital cultural and language distinction that English-speakers need to understand!
Cognates
One of the first things you'll notice is that many of the German words for the family are similar to the English terms. It is easy to see the close Germanic language “family resemblance” between brother/Bruder, father/Vater, or daughter/Tochter. We call these similar words in two languages cognates. There are a lot of English-German cognates for the family. Others are familiar because of common Latin or French origins: family/Familie, uncle/Onkel, etc.
After you have studied this lesson, you will be able to read and understand a short paragraph in German about your or someone else's family. You'll even be able to draw your own family tree (Stammbaum) in German!
AUDIO Click on a German phrase to hear it (.wav)
> More Lesson 9 Audio: MP3 or wav
| Familienmitglieder - Family Members | |
| Notice in the phrases below that when you talk about a feminine (die) person (or thing), the possessive pronoun mein ends in e. When talking about a masculine (der) person (or thing), mein has no ending in the nominative (subject) case. Other possessive forms (sein, his; dein, your, etc.) work the same way. The final e in German is always pronounced: (meine = MINE-ah)! | |
| Deutsch | Englisch |
| die Mutter - meine Mutter | mother - my mother |
| der Vater - mein Vater | father - my father |
| die Eltern - meine Eltern (pl.) | parents - my parents |
| der Sohn - sein Sohn | son - his son |
| die Tochter - seine Tochter | daughter - his daughter |
| der Bruder - ihr Bruder | brother - her brother |
| die Schwester - seine Schwester | sister - his sister |
| AUDIO (mp3 or wav) for these words | |
| die Geschwister - meine Geschwister (pl.) | siblings / brothers & sisters - my brothers and sisters |
| die Großmutter - meine Großmutter | grandmother - my grandmother |
| die Oma - meine Oma | grandma/granny - my grandma |
| der Großvater - dein Großvater | grandfather - your grandfather |
| der Opa - sein Opa | grandpa/gramps - his grandpa |
| der Enkelsohn - mein Enkelsohn | grandson - my grandson |
| die Enkelin - seine Enkelin | granddaughter - his granddaughter |
| More family words in our Family Glossary. | |
In the next part of this lesson you'll learn how to talk about your family and ask/answer questions related to the family.
NEXT > Lesson 9 - Part 2 > Part 3
Related Lessons and Exercises
Audio
Listen to mp3 or wav audio for these words.
Family Glossary
An annotated English-German glossary of family vocabulary.
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German for Beginners - Contents
Related Pages
Family Glossary
An annotated English-German glossary of family vocabulary.
You and thou, Sie und du
When to use Sie and du can be a problem for English-speakers, who long ago lost "thou" from their own language. With self-scoring quiz.
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