🌱Family

In Weeks 1 and 2, you learned that Spanish nouns use el or la (the) depending on gender - el café, la ensalada. You also met un and una (a/an). This week, you'll learn the plural forms: los, las, unos, unas - because families have more than one person! You'll also learn possessive words like mi (my) and tu (your).

Spanish family vocabulary follows patterns you'll recognize. Many words change ending for gender: -o for male, -a for female. Some words are completely different for each gender (like padre/madre). Let's start with the immediate family.

Before we talk about "the brothers" or "the sisters", let's learn how to make nouns plural. Spanish has three simple rules based on how the word ends.

Now that you know el/la (the) and un/una (a/an), let's add the plural forms. These are essential for talking about family: "the parents", "the siblings", "some cousins".

To say "my", "your", "his/her" in Spanish, use possessive adjectives. They go BEFORE the noun. For now, focus on the singular forms - we'll cover plurals in a moment.

When the thing possessed is plural, the possessive adjective also becomes plural. Just add -s! This matches the noun, not the owner.

To introduce or identify who someone is in your family, use "ser" + possessive + family word. This is how you answer "Who is that?" or point out family members.

To say you "have" family members, use "tener" (to have) - the same verb we used for age! This is how you describe your family composition.

You can use "ser" to describe permanent characteristics of family members, like personality or appearance. We'll learn more adjectives in Week 4, but here are some useful ones for family.