Real English Conversation: Talking about FAMILY

Hello. In this lesson, we're going to learn how to give personal information, such as names and age, for different family members. Let's first listen to a dialogue and you will hear the key phrases we will be learning today. Wie heißt Ihre Mutter? Sie heißt Maxine. Und wie alt ist sie? Sie ist 64 Jahre alt. Let's first learn how to ask a family member's name. Wie heißt Ihre Mutter? Wie heißt Ihr Vater? To ask about a family member's name, we first say, Wie heißt? Meaning, what is someone called? And then we have either Ihre Mutter or Ihr Vater. Meaning, your mother or your father. So these questions mean, what is your mother called or what is your father called? We can also be less formal and use Deiner or Dein to mean your. However, for this lesson, we will practice using the formal form of your, Ihrer and Ihr. Let's practice asking these questions. Wie heißt Ihre Mutter? Wie heißt Ihr Vater? That was great. Well done. Let's now learn how to say, he or she is called in German. Sie heißt Maxine. Er heißt Tom. We saw the verb heißen in Unit 2 and we learned that it means to be called. So, er heißt means he is called and sie heißt means she is called. Let's go straight into a speaking practice. Sie heißt Maxine. Er heißt Tom. That was great. Well done. Let's now learn how to ask how old a family member is. Wie alt ist sie? Wie alt ist er? As we learned before, wie alt means how old and we saw the verb sein in Unit 1 and we learned that it means to be. So, ist sie means is she and ist er means is he. It's a pretty straightforward question. Let's go straight into a speaking practice. Wie alt ist sie? Wie alt ist er? Great job. Well done. Let's now learn how to answer these questions about a family member's age. Sie ist 64 Jahre alt. Er ist 33 Jahre alt. Now, you should be familiar with the words in these sentences. Sie ist means she is and er ist means he is. And at the end, we have Jahre alt meaning years old. And in the middle, we have a number phrase to indicate the person's age. So, sie ist 64 Jahre alt means she is 64 years old. Let's practice saying these sentences. Listen and repeat. Sie ist 64 Jahre alt. Er ist 33 Jahre alt. Excellent work. Well done. Let's listen to the dialogue again. Wie heißt Ihre Mutter? Sie heißt Maxine. Und wie alt ist sie? Sie ist 64 Jahre alt. Have a go at saying the names and ages of your family members. Can you remember all the numbers from Unit 1? Pause the video to practice. Wie heißt Ihre Mutter? Sie heißt Maxine. Und wie alt ist sie? Sie ist 64 Jahre alt. Excellent work. Well done. Today, we have looked at how to say someone else's name and someone else's age when we are talking about family members. As always, the next lesson is a speaking drill lesson where you can do more speaking practice of the sentences you have learned. Auf Wiedersehen!