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What does “petits-enfants” mean in French?

Les petits-enfants means grandchildren, not small children. With the hyphen, petit- marks a step down the family tree rather than size: un petit-fils is a grandson, une petite-fille a granddaughter. Small children are les petits enfants, identical in speech and hyphen-free on the page, or more often les jeunes enfants — which is exactly why the pair catches learners out.

The system runs both ways: grand-père and grand-mère go up a generation, and arrière-petits-enfants go down two, giving great-grandchildren. Between grand-, petit- and arrière-, and the four base words père, mère, fils and fille, most of the family tree builds itself.