1.6 Family and Friends

Table of Contents

Talking about Family and Friends in German

In this chapter you learn how to talk about people who are close to you in German. You will see basic patterns that help you describe who belongs to your family and who your friends are, and how to put them into simple sentences. Details about family vocabulary, possessive articles, plural forms, and question words will each receive their own chapters later, so here we keep an overview and focus on using everything together in a simple way.

Your Family and Social Circle

In German, people often start small talk by asking about family. Simple sentences like “I have two brothers” or “My friend lives in Berlin” are very common. You already know or will soon learn the verbs “sein” (to be) and “haben” (to have). With these, plus basic family and friend words, you can already say a lot.

Compare these English and German examples:

English	German
This is my family.	Das ist meine Familie.
I have one brother.	Ich habe einen Bruder.
I have one sister.	Ich habe eine Schwester.
I have two brothers.	Ich habe zwei Brüder.
I have two sisters.	Ich habe zwei Schwestern.
These are my friends.	Das sind meine Freunde.

You will later learn exactly why “meine Familie” and “meine Freunde” look different, and why “einen Bruder” is not the same as “ein Bruder”. For now, focus on recognizing the patterns and pronouncing the words.

Important: Use “Das ist …” for one person or one group, and “Das sind …” for several people.

Examples:

Das ist meine Mutter.
Das ist mein Freund.
Das sind meine Eltern.
Das sind meine Freunde.

Saying Who People Are

To introduce your family members or friends, use the verb “sein” (to be) together with simple nouns and professions or roles. You can combine this with age, nationality, or place later, but here we keep it short.

Basic pattern:

Ich bin …
Er / Sie ist …
Wir sind …

Now add family or friend words:

Ich bin Sohn.
Ich bin Tochter.
Er ist mein Bruder.
Sie ist meine Schwester.
Sie sind meine Eltern.
Er ist mein Freund.
Sie ist meine Freundin.

You can also say if people are married or not, using “verheiratet” or “Single”.

Ich bin verheiratet.
Ich bin Single.
Meine Eltern sind verheiratet.

Pattern: Person + form of “sein” + role or relation
Example:
Sie ist meine Schwester.
Er ist mein Freund.

You will get more detailed practice with the verb “sein” and personal pronouns in other chapters, so here simply try to remember whole phrases.

Saying What and Who You Have

To tell people about your family and friends, “haben” (to have) is very useful. You already saw short examples:

Ich habe einen Bruder.
Ich habe eine Schwester.

You can also say that you have no siblings or that you have many friends.

Ich habe keine Geschwister.
Ich habe viele Freunde.

The exact forms like “keine” and “viele” will be explained later with plural formation and negation, but you can start using them as fixed units.

Very useful sentences:
Ich habe einen Bruder.
Ich habe eine Schwester.
Ich habe keine Geschwister.
Ich habe viele Freunde.

Describing Simple Family Situations

With just a few patterns, you can already describe your family in a very simple way. Combine “sein” and “haben” with a small number of new words.

Example mini text:

Das ist meine Familie.
Ich bin 20 Jahre alt.
Ich habe einen Bruder und eine Schwester.
Mein Bruder ist 18.
Meine Schwester ist 22.
Wir sind aus Deutschland.

You do not need to understand every grammar detail yet. Focus on understanding the meaning and on seeing how the same words repeat: “Bruder”, “Schwester”, “Familie”, “Wir”.

You can create your own short text and just replace the numbers, countries, and names.

Talking About Friends

Friends are also an important topic in everyday German. The basic words are:

Freund
Freundin
Freunde

You will later learn the full details of gender and plural endings. For now, remember:

“mein Freund” is “my (male) friend” or often “my boyfriend”.
“meine Freundin” is “my (female) friend” or often “my girlfriend”.
“meine Freunde” is “my friends” in general.

Context usually shows if you mean a romantic partner or not.

Examples:

Das ist mein Freund Paul.
Das ist meine Freundin Anna.
Das sind meine Freunde aus Berlin.

You can also combine this with simple likes or activities, which you will explore more deeply in the chapter about leisure and hobbies.

Ich habe viele Freunde.
Meine Freunde sind nett.
Mein bester Freund heißt Tom.
Meine beste Freundin heißt Lea.

“bester Freund” and “beste Freundin” show that someone is your best friend. Adjectives and their endings will become important later, but here you can use these phrases as ready-made chunks.

Short Question and Answer Patterns

In conversations, people will ask you simple questions about your family and friends. Detailed question words will be handled later, but you will already hear some common ones in this context.

You may hear:

Hast du Geschwister?
Hast du einen Bruder?
Hast du eine Schwester?
Hast du Kinder?
Wer ist das?

And you can answer:

Ja, ich habe einen Bruder.
Nein, ich habe keine Geschwister.
Ja, ich habe zwei Kinder.
Das ist meine Mutter.
Das sind meine Freunde.

You do not need to build complex questions yourself yet. First try to understand them and to answer with very simple sentences.

Very common question and answer:
Frage: Hast du Geschwister?
Antwort: Ja, ich habe einen Bruder. / Nein, ich habe keine Geschwister.

Later, in the chapter on question words, you will see more forms like “Wie”, “Wo”, “Wann”, and how to build your own questions correctly.

Building a Simple “Family and Friends” Introduction

You can already combine what you know into a short self introduction that mentions your family and friends. Here is a simple model you can adapt:

Hallo, ich heiße Maria.
Das ist meine Familie.
Ich habe einen Bruder und eine Schwester.
Mein Bruder ist 15.
Meine Schwester ist 10.
Wir sind aus Spanien.
Ich habe viele Freunde in Berlin.
Das sind meine Freunde aus der Schule.

You can replace “Maria”, the numbers, the country, and “Berlin” with your own information. This gives you a basic paragraph in German about your family and friends, which is often used in beginner courses and exams at A1 level.

Useful structure for your own text:

Name: Ich heiße …
Family: Das ist meine Familie. Ich habe …
Short details: Mein Bruder / Meine Schwester ist …
Friends: Ich habe … Freunde. Das sind meine Freunde …

Use the chapter list at the end to help you remember the key words.

Vocabulary List for this Chapter

German	English
die Familie	family
das Familienmitglied	family member
der Bruder	brother
die Schwester	sister
die Eltern	parents
die Mutter	mother
der Vater	father
das Kind	child
die Kinder	children
die Geschwister	siblings
der Sohn	son
die Tochter	daughter
der Freund	friend (male), boyfriend
die Freundin	friend (female), girlfriend
die Freunde	friends
der beste Freund	best (male) friend
die beste Freundin	best (female) friend
verheiratet	married
Single	single
nett	nice
haben	to have
sein	to be
viele	many
keine	no, none
das ist	this is / that is
das sind	these are / those are
Wer ist das?	Who is that?
Hast du Geschwister?	Do you have siblings?
Ich habe einen Bruder.	I have one brother.
Ich habe eine Schwester.	I have one sister.
Ich habe keine Geschwister.	I do not have siblings.