Where are you from?

Lesson 3

In this lesson we will learn personal pronouns and the names of a few countries. Then we will put them together and learn how to talk about nationalities. There’s a lot to cover so you don’t have to go through the entire lesson all at once. You can focus on just one section at a time. For instance, you could start by learning the personal pronouns one day, then learn the countries the next day.

Personal Pronouns

我	wǒ	I, me
我们	wǒ men	we, us
你	nǐ	you
你们	nǐ men	you (plural)
他	tā	him
她	tā	her
它	tā	it
他们	tā men	They (plural male or male + female)
她们	tā men	They (female, plural)

Notes:

1. Notice that we can make each of the singular personal pronouns plural by adding the character “们”.
2. The words for he, she and it in Chinese are pronounced the same but the characters are written differently.
3. If we are not aware of the gender of a group of people, we use “他们”. Similarly, if a group of people includes both males and females, we also use “他们”.

Countries

国家	guójiā	country
中国	Zhōngguó	China
日本	Rìběn	Japan
韩国	Hánguó	South Korea
美国	Měiguó	United States of America
英国	Yīngguó	Britain

Notes:

1. Not every country name ends with “国” as you can see with the Chinese name for Japan – 日本.
2. In order to form nationalities, we simply add the word for person “人” (rén) at the end of the country name. for example: the word for “American” is “美国人” (Měiguórén). You can remember it as: Nationality = Country + Person (人).

Talking about Nationalities

你是哪国人？	Nǐ shì nǎ guórén?	What’s your nationality?
我是美国人。	Wǒ shì Měiguórén.	I’m American.
我们都是美国人。	Wǒmen dōu shì Měiguórén.	We are American.
你是中国人吗？	Nǐ shì Zhōngguórén ma?	Are you Chinese?
我不是中国人。	Wǒ búshi Zhōngguórén.	I’m not Chinese.

Notes:

1. The question “你是哪国人？” literally translates to “You are which country person?”
2. If you are using a plural personal pronoun (like “we”), we often use “都” (dōu), which means “both” or “all”.

If your home country was not one listed here, don’t be disappointed. You can easily find out what it is by doing a quick Google search. Then, to express your nationality, all you have to do is add “人”.

Practice Time

Let’s practice saying personal pronouns and nationalities by putting them together.

我是中国人。	Wǒ shì Zhōngguórén.
我们都是日本人。	Wǒmen dōu shì Rìběnrén.
你是韩国人。	Nǐ shì Hánguórén.
你们都是美国人。	Nǐmen dōu shì Měiguórén.
他是英国人。	Tā shì Yīngguórén.
她是中国人。	Tā shì Zhōngguórén.
他们都是日本人。	Tāmen dōu shì Rìběnrén.
她们都是韩国人。	Tāmen dōu shì Hánguórén.

Now let’s try asking and answering questions about nationalities.

你是哪国人？	Nǐ shì nǎ guórén?
我是英国人。	Wǒ shì yīngguórén.
她是哪国人？	Tā shì nǎ guórén?
她是美国人。	Tā shì Měiguórén.
他们是哪国人？	Tāmen shì nǎ guórén?
他们都是中国人。	Tāmen dōu shì Zhōngguórén.

Congratulations on making it to the end of this lesson. You’re already able say so much in Chinese! In the next lesson we will use what we have learnt in a new dialogue that continues the story from before. See you then!