Ma famille et ma maison (My family and my home)
Primary 5 · French
Ma famille et ma maison (My family and my home)
Lesson 2 of 3
12 min
Let's begin
Niyonzima’s family has just moved to a new house. His friend Umutoni comes to visit and stands at the door, looking around.
“Show me everything,” she says. So Niyonzima walks her through the house, naming each room.
Today you learn the rooms, the things inside them, and three tiny French words that let you say what is there: il y a.
La maison is the house. Une pièce is a room.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| la chambre | the bedroom |
| la cuisine | the kitchen |
| le salon | the living room |
| la salle à manger | the dining room |
| la salle de bains | the bathroom |
| les toilettes | the toilet |
| le jardin | the garden |
| la cour | the yard, the compound |
Two small warnings. La chambre is a bedroom, not any room — the word for any room is une pièce. And les toilettes is always plural in French, even when there is only one.
Again: learn each one with its le or la stuck to it. You will need that in one minute.
Keza opens her bedroom door. Inside there is a bed and a table. She wants to say so in French.
Step 1 “There is” in French is il y a. Three tiny words that always travel together. Say it: eel-ya.
Step 2 She needs “a bed” and “a table”. To say a, swap le for un and la for une.
Step 3 She joins them with et (and):
Il y a un lit et une table. — There is a bed and a table.
English has two forms. There is one chair. There are six chairs. The verb changes.
French does not bother. It is il y a every single time:
Same three words. Only the thing counted changes. This makes French easier than English here — enjoy it.
Dans means in. Put the place first, then a comma, then il y a.
To say there is no…, you wrap n’ and pas around the middle: il n’y a pas de.
Now be careful, because this is where learners slip. The un or une disappears and turns into de.
Never say il n’y a pas un jardin. It is always pas de. And before a vowel sound, de shrinks to d’: Il n’y a pas d’arbres dans la cour. (There are no trees in the yard.)
Here is Niyonzima showing Umutoni his house. Read it slowly. Every word is one you now know.
Voici ma maison. Dans la maison, il y a un salon, une cuisine et deux chambres.
Dans le salon, il y a un canapé, une table et une télévision.
Dans ma chambre, il y a un lit, une lampe et une petite fenêtre.
Il n’y a pas de salle à manger. Nous mangeons dans la cuisine.
Derrière la maison, il y a une cour.
(Nous mangeons = we eat. Derrière = behind.)
Tip
Three words, glued together for life
il y a = “there is” and “there are”. It never changes, no matter how many things you are counting.
To turn it upside down, squeeze n’ and pas around the y a, then use de:
il y a un jardin → il n’y a pas de jardin
Say each answer out loud before you read it.
Say “In my house there are four rooms.”
Answer: Dans ma maison, il y a quatre pièces. Maison is a la word, so “my” is ma. Four rooms is still il y a — it never becomes plural.
Say “In the kitchen there is a table.”
Answer: Dans la cuisine, il y a une table. Table is a la word, so “a table” is une table.
Uwase’s house has no garden. How does she say it?
Answer: Il n’y a pas de jardin. After pas, the un turns into de.
What does this mean: Dans ma chambre, il y a un lit et une lampe.
Answer: “In my bedroom there is a bed and a lamp.”
Which one is correct — Il y a deux chaises or Il y sont deux chaises?
Answer: Il y a deux chaises. English changes “is” to “are”, but French keeps il y a for one chair, two chairs or a hundred chairs.
Describe your own bedroom in one sentence, starting with Dans ma chambre, il y a…
Example answer: Dans ma chambre, il y a un lit, une table et un tapis.
What you learned today
Quick check
Match each French word to its meaning.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
