Speaking

Describing Your Family in Spanish: Speaking Practice (A1)

Speaking practice you do out loud — read the situation, take each prompt, and SAY your answer before you open the model one. Nobody's listening; that's the point of the rehearsal.

After your own name, your family is the first thing any Spanish speaker will ask you about — and the answer runs on three A1 workhorses: ser, tener and llamarse. Say each answer out loud before opening the model one; the goal is sound coming out of your mouth, not a perfect sentence in your head.

One trick worth stealing from the model answers: numbers do half the work. "Somos cuatro", "tiene treinta años", "cinco minutos" — count things and your description sounds concrete immediately.

Make it real

The moment this vocabulary earns its keep is when you meet people — rehearse the whole scene in our example conversation on meeting someone new, and read a family story told in exactly this tense in La abuela y el teléfono. If a Spanish-speaking family is in your future, the full survival kit is Spanish for meeting your partner's family.

Your turn — say it out loud

Say how many people there are in your family and who they are.

En mi familia somos cuatro: mi pareja, mis dos hijos y yo.

Describe one family member: name, age, and what they're like.

Mi hermana se llama Ana. Tiene treinta años y es muy divertida.

Say who you look like, and how.

Me parezco a mi madre: tenemos los mismos ojos.

Say what your family does together on weekends.

Los domingos comemos juntos en casa de mis padres.

Describe a family pet — real or invented.

Tenemos un perro. Se llama Rocco, es pequeño y duerme todo el día.

Say which family member you talk to the most, and how often.

Hablo más con mi abuela. Me llama todos los días y hablamos cinco minutos.

You've rehearsed it. Now say it to a person.

Prompts build the reflex; conversation builds the speaker. Live classes with native teachers are where your answers meet real replies.

Practice It Live