How to Ask
“Where are You from?”
in Mandarin Chinese

To introduce someone’s nationality in Mandarin Chinese, you can use the following pattern:

nationality=country+person

美国+

Měiguó+rén (American)

澳大利亚+

Àodàlìyǎ+rén (Australian)

加拿大 +

Jiānádà+rén (Canadian)

中国+人 

Zhōngguó+rén (Chinese)

法国+

Fàguó+rén (French)

德国+

Déguó+rén (German)

To know more about countries’ names in Mandarin Chinese, please click here!

Pay attention to the following sentences!

大卫美国

Dàwèi shì Měiguó rén.

It literally means

David is America person (David is an American).

玛丽加拿大

Mǎlì shì Jiānádà rén.

It literally means

Mary is Canada person (Mary is a Canadian)

印度尼西亚

shì Yìn dù ní xī yǎ rén.

It literally means

I am Indonesia person (I am an Indonesian).

Then to ask someone’s nationality or where someone is from, you can use the following sentences.

1. 人? (ask a foreigner’s nationality)

It literally means
You are which country person? (Which country person are you?/What country are you from?)
Then to answer you can use the following sentence (same as above).
日本
shì Rìběn rén.
It literally means
I am Japan person. (I am a Japanese).
2. 国家? (ask a foreigner’s nationality)
shì ge guójiā de?
It literally means
You are which country of? (Which country are you from?)
Then to answer you can use the following sentence (same as above).
韩国
shì Hánguó rén.
It literally means
I am Korea person. (I am a Korean).
3. 哪儿? (native Chinese ask each other, people from the same country)
shì nǎ’er rén?
It literally means
You are where person? (Where are you from?)
Then to answer you can use the following sentence (city+rén).
天津
shì Tiānjīn rén.
I am Tianjin person.
4. 哪里? (ask formally such as in a job interview, TV show, etc)
lái nǎlǐ?
It literally means
You come from where? (Where do you come from?/Where are you from?)
Then to answer you can use the following sentence.
加拿大
lái Jiānádà.
I come from Canada.

To know more about countries’ names in Mandarin Chinese, please click here!