📖LearnModule 1 · Lesson 17 of 30Basic User · CEFR A1, first halfUnit 4 · Me and my family
La familia — family words
Module 1 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A1, first half), lesson 17 of 30: Twelve family nouns with their articles. On this page: 13 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
la familia
the family
lah fah-MEE-lyah
el padre
the father
ehl PAH-dreh
la madre
the mother
lah MAH-dreh
el hermano
the brother
ehl ehr-MAH-noh
la hermana
the sister
lah ehr-MAH-nah
los padresplural
the parents
lohs PAH-drehs
el abuelo
the grandfather
ehl ah-BWEH-loh
la abuela
the grandmother
lah ah-BWEH-lah
el tío
the uncle
ehl TEE-oh
la tía
the aunt
lah TEE-ah
el primo
the cousin (male)
ehl PREE-moh
la prima
the cousin (female)
lah PREE-mah
la persona
the person
lah pehr-SOH-nah
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Hear the words
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
La regla · The rule
Twelve family nouns with their articles. One stem gives two people: herman- gives brother and sister, abuel- both grandparents, tí- and prim- the rest. Learn the stem, flip the ending.
Y también · And also
A mixed group takes the masculine plural: los hermanos means the siblings, los padres the parents. Say who is in your family with hay: Hay cuatro personas en mi familia.
Ojo · Watch out
los padres means the parents, not the fathers; los hermanos can be brothers, or brothers and sisters together. And the h of hermano is silent: ehr-MAH-noh.
Do it now — on paper
Say all 13 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with la familia.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write two sentences of your own that get the watch-out line right, then the two practice pages of workbook lesson 17 in Module 1 are the written half of this page.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.