Grundlagen: Meine Familie
Let's explore the family tree!
In the article series “Grundlagen”, I’ll show you the basics of German. Suitable for beginners (A0-A1). You’ll find exercises at the end of the article.
In the previous posts of this series (here and here), I showed you how to have a small conversation. Today, you will learn how to talk about your family in German. You will also encounter possessive articles (Possessivartikel: mein, dein, …)!
Familienmitglieder 👨👩👦👦
Look at the family tree below. How are Helga and Birgit related?
💡 Helga ist Birgits Mutter. Birgit ist Helgas Tochter.
In total, there are 12 different kinds of relationships in this familytree. Here is a list of the German words, and an example for each (🎧 Audio):
Mama & Papa (more formal: Mutter und Vater): Birgit ist Yvonnes Mutter.
Schwester & Bruder: Isabelle ist Bens Schwester.
Tochter, Sohn, Kind: Birgit ist Helgas Tochter.
Frau & Mann (more formal: Ehefrau & Ehemann): Sophia ist Jens’ Ehefrau.
Oma & Opa (more formal: Großmutter und Großvater): Klaus ist Svens Großvater.
Enkelin & Enkel: Tobias ist Helgas Enkel.
Cousine & Cousin: Ben ist Marks Cousin.
Tante & Onkel: Jens ist Svens Onkel
Nichte & Neffe: Tobias ist Birgits Neffe.
Schwiegertochter & Schwiegersohn: Thorsten ist Helgas Schwiegersohn.
Schwiegermutter & Schwiegervater: Helga ist Thorstens Schwiegermutter.
Schwägerin & Schwager: Sophia ist Birgits Schwägerin.
Possessivartikel
Possessive articles explain to whom something (or someone) belongs. They are useful to talk about your family, and ask about the family of someone else. For now, let’s look at four of them (🎧 Audio):
mein(e): Ich heiße Tobias. Meine Schwester heißt Isabelle.
dein(e): Wie heißt deine Schwester?
ihr(e): Das ist Birgit. Ihre Mutter heißt Helga.
sein(e): Sven ist Ingenieur. Sein Vater heißt Thorsten.
💡 Note that the letter -e is added if the person after the article is feminine (Isabelle, Schwester, Helga). The letter -e is not used if the person after the article is masculine (Thorsten), or if it is a neutral word (e.g. sein Kind heißt Bernd).
Hausaufgabe
It’s your turn! The exercises can help you understand and remember the new expressions. Feel free to share your answers in our facebook group, where we check your text and discuss! 💬
You can now explore the family tree from above! Complete the following sentences, then create some on your own:
Ich heiße Mark. […] heißt Yvonne.
Das ist Isabelle. Helga ist […]
Das ist Jens. […] heißt Sven.
[…]
I hope you learned something! 😀 If you liked this newsletter, subscribe to get my new articles straight to your email inbox! See you,
Rebecca 👋
About me 👩🏫
I am Rebecca, an enthusiastic language coach since 2016. I love learning languages, and help other people learn them! As a Duolingo Global Ambassador, I regularly host online-events for German, currently exclusively online. I’m also available as private tutor via preply.
Community 🌍
Stay up to date about the events in my facebook-group! This is also the right place for questions and answers about the German language!
Newsletter 💌
With this newsletter, I want to offer material and ideas to everyone who is in the process of learning German. It will contain explanations of grammar and vocabulary, but also information about German culture and proverbs. For advanced topics, I’ll write the newsletter in German, so you can exercise reading German texts. I hope to publish at least once a week.
Bildquellen: thispersondoesnotexist