In this lesson we’ll learn how to ask which country someone is from as well as the names of a few countries. Finally we will pull the first three lessons together in a simple conversation where we greet someone, ask for their name and where they’re from.
Table of Contents
Lesson Two Review
Before we begin, let’s review Lesson Two.
Tones
Chinese has four tones:
- High Tone is uses a horizontal tone mark: e.g. mā
- Rising Tone uses a rising tone mark above the character e.g. má
- Inflected Tone uses a falling and then rising tone mark e.g. mǎ
- Falling tone uses a falling tone mark e,g, mà
Lesson Two key vocabulary
| English | Chinese (Pinyin) |
| I / me |
|
| you |
|
| called |
|
| surname |
|
Lesson Two key phrases
| English | Chinese (Pinyin) |
| what’s your name? |
|
| my name is… |
|
| my surname is… |
|
How to ask where someone is from in Chinese
If you’re visiting China, you are likely to be asked which country you’re from. A conversation about which country you’re from would commonly look like this:
nǐ shì nǎ guórén
Which country are you from?
wǒ shì měiguó rén
I am American
Breaking down the first sentence this is:
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|
|
|
|
| nǐ | shì | nǎ | guó rén |
| you | are | which | nationality |
You should already be familiar with
- “which”
哪 - “nationality”
国 人
A few points:
- “nationality”
国 人 is comprised of the words “country”国 and “person”人 . This is logical, if you consider that “you are which nationality” and “you are which country-person” both make sense. - “which”
哪 is a very common words that’s worth memorising, as it’s used in the same way we use “which” in English.
The answer to this is to say “I am <nationality>”, that is:
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|
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<nationality> |
| wǒ | shì | <nationality> |
| I | am | <nationality> |
Here you can substitute your nationality, which is made up of <country name>+
- China
中 国 becomes Chinese中 国 人 - America
美 国 becomes American美 国 人 - Canada
加 拿 大 becomes Canadian加 拿 大 人 - Australia
澳 洲 becomes Australian澳 洲 人 - Indian
印 度 becomes Indian印 度 人 - Britain
英 国 becomes British英 国 人 - Check out post on Country Names in Chinese for more
Review
This is the key vocabulary and phrases learned in this lesson.
Lesson key vocabulary
| English | Chinese (Pinyin) |
| I / me |
|
| you |
|
| is / am |
|
| which |
|
| nationality |
|
| person |
|
| America |
|
| American |
|
| China |
|
| Chinese (national) |
|
Lesson key phrases
| English | Chinese (Pinyin) |
| what nationality are you? |
|
| I am |
|
Sample Chinese conversation: hello, what’s your name and where are you from?
If we combine everything we’ve learned so far from the first three lessons, it’s not possible to have a basic conversation
ni hao ma?
How are you?
wo hen hao.
I’m very good/well.
ni ne?
And you?
hen hao.
Very good.
wǒ xìng lǐ. wǒ jiào wěiwěi
My surname is Li, I’m called Weiwei
nǐ guìxìng
What is your surname
wǒ xìng Smith. wǒ jiào John
My surname is Smith, I’m called John
nǐ shì nǎ guórén
Which country are you from? (literally: you are what nationality?)
wǒ shì měiguó rén
I am American
Wrapping it up
In this short lesson we’ve learned how to ask and say our nationality. We’ve also put together a basic conversation based on the first three lessons.
Here is a summary of the key points from this lesson:
-
我 是 。 。 。 人 is how you tell someone your nationality -
姓 is the Chinese word for surname - “nationality”
国 人 is comprised of the words “country”国 and “person”人 - Country names commonly end in the character for “country”
国 e.g. “American” is美 国
Be sure to check out Lesson 4 – Introducing people in Chinese