In today’s lesson we’ll have a look at the masculine noun fils, which means “son”. This is a really tricky word as there’s no way to get the pronunciation right without an audio clip or pronunciation symbols.
le fils
son
Fils – Son in French
Word origin
According to Wiktionary.org, the modern French masculine noun fils comes from filius (son, child) in Latin.
Pronunciation
The pronunciationof fils (son) is: fees or [fis]. Completely ignore the L — it is silent. The S sounds like S as in Sam and the I sounds like EE as in feet.
Both the singular and plural form of “son” are the same: le fils (the son) and les fils (the sons). The pronunciations of both are also the same.
Example sentences
For this first example sentence, the structure for talking about age in French is: Conjugated from or avoir (to have) + number of years. This lesson explores how to talk about age in French.
Mon fils s’appelle Jean-Luc et il a vingt-cinq ans.
My son’s name is Jean-Luc and he is 25 years-old.
For this next sentence the LLs in fille (daughter) are not pronounced. This lesson explores the topic of the LL.
Nous avons un fils et deux filles.
We have one son and two daughters.
In French, the word fiston is slang for son and can translate to “sonny”.
Allez, fiston, il est l’heure de se lever!
Come on son, it’s time to get up!
This final sentence uses petit-fils, which means grandson. This lesson explores the difficult pronunciation of États-Unis (United States).
Notre petit-fils s’appelle Marc et il habite aux États-Unis.
Our grandson’s name is Marc and he lives in the United States.
Conclusion
Et voilà ! Now you know how to pronounce and use fils (son) in French! Now check our our audio lesson covering French family vocabulary!
