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Lesson 3
Family
കുടുംബം
French nouns carry grammatical gender — but only two, not three. For people, French le/la lines up with the same instinct behind Malayalam's gendered pronouns.
Grammar Comparison
വ്യാകരണ താരതമ്യം
le/la for people ≈ Malayalam's gendered pronoun split
French
le père (masc.) / la mère (fem.)
Malayalam
അവൻ (he) / അവൾ (she)
French has only masculine and feminine, not three genders. For family words this matches what Malayalam's third-person pronouns already track. The harder part comes later — French also genders inanimate objects (la table, le livre) with no biological logic at all, which Malayalam doesn't do.
Vocabulary
വാക്കുകൾ
| French | Pronunciation | Malayalam | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| la mère | lah mair | അമ്മamma | mother |
| le père | luh pair | അച്ഛൻachan | father |
| le frère | luh frair | സഹോദരൻsahodaran | brother |
| la sœur | lah suhr | സഹോദരിsahodari | sister |
| la grand-mère | lah grahn-mair | മുത്തശ്ശിmuthashi | grandmother |
| le grand-père | luh grahn-pair | മുത്തച്ഛൻmuthachan | grandfather |
| le fils | luh fees | മകൻmakan | son |
| la fille | lah fee | മകൾmakal | daughter |