Family
Family
Family vocabulary is a natural place to put gendered articles and possessives into practice, since every family member noun has a fixed, often intuitive, grammatical gender.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Most family nouns have 'natural' gender — with one famous exception
der Vater, die Mutter, der Bruder, die Schwester — but das Mädchen (girl)
the father, the mother, the brother, the sister — but the girl
Unlike most German nouns, family-member words are reassuringly intuitive: male relatives are der, female relatives are die. The one classic trap is Mädchen ("girl") — it's das, neuter, purely because it ends in the diminutive suffix -chen, which is always neuter no matter what it refers to. Grammar overrides biology here, a good early lesson in how German gender works.
mein / dein: possessives take ein-word endings
mein Vater, meine Mutter, mein Kind
my father, my mother, my child
German possessives (mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser...) attach the same endings as ein/eine depending on the gender of the noun that follows, not the gender of the possessor. This is different from English, where "my" never changes form. You'll cover the full possessive table in a later lesson — for now, just notice mein vs. meine changing with the noun's gender.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| German | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| die Familie | dee fah-MEE-lee-eh | the family |
| der Vater | dair FAH-ter | the father |
| die Mutter | dee MOOT-ter | the mother |
| der Bruder | dair BROO-der | the brother |
| die Schwester | dee SHVES-ter | the sister |
| der Sohn | dair zohn | the son |
| die Tochter | dee TOKH-ter | the daughter |
| die Eltern | dee EL-tern | the parents |
| die Großmutter | dee GROHS-moot-ter | the grandmother |
| der Großvater | dair GROHS-fah-ter | the grandfather |
| das Mädchen | dahs MAYT-khen | the girl |
| der Junge | dair YOONG-eh | the boy |