Learn how to ask about someone's nationality
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| Hallo, ich heiße Laura. Hi everybody! I’m Laura. | |
| Welcome to GermanPod101.com’s “Deutsch in 3 Minuten”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn German. | |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to talk about your plans. In this lesson, we are going to deal with the verb to be in German, sein. | |
| We will also discuss how to talk about your nationality. | |
| When you meet a new person in Germany, they might ask you: | |
| Welcher Nationalität sind Sie? which is the equivalent of "Where do you come from?" | |
| Welcher means "Of what?" | |
| Nationalität is "Nationality" | |
| Sind is a conjugated form of the “to be” verb sein. | |
| You’re familiar with Sie, the formal word for "you." | |
| All together it's Welcher Nationalität sind Sie? | |
| [slowly] Welcher Nationalität sind Sie? | |
| Answering this question is very easy! You just say Ich bin which means "I am", then your nationality. | |
| For example: Ich bin Amerikaner | |
| [slowly] Ich bin Amerikaner. | |
| Just replace “Amerikaner” with your own nationality. | |
| "I am Spanier" Ich bin Spanier. | |
| "I am Italiener" is Ich bin Italiener . | |
| "I am Brazilian" is Ich bin Brasilianer. | |
| Be careful, because this is how you refer to your nationality if you are male. For the feminine form, you mostly have to add an in at the end of the nationality. | |
| For example, if you are an American woman, you will say: Ich bin Amerikanerin. | |
| Spanish women say: | |
| Ich bin Spanierin. | |
| For Brazilian women it is: | |
| Ich bin Brasilianerin. | |
| and so on. | |
| To return the question you can simply say Und Sie? which is "And you?" in a polite way. | |
| Now it’s time for Laura’s tips. | |
| Be careful because in German, we write all nouns always with a capital letter! This differs from English where you just use capitals with proper nouns. | |
| In this lesson we learned how to talk about nationalities. | |
| Next time we’ll continue to study the verb sein and we'll see how to use it to talk about locations. By the way, do you know how to ask someone where they are in German? I'll be waiting for you with the answer in the next Deutsch in 3 Minuten lesson. | |
| Bis bald! |
14 Comments
HideHello Eli,
Thank you very much for your introduction! ?
We are glad to hear from you and appreciate your kind feedback! ?
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Albert
Team GermanPod101.com
Hallo Laura,
Ich bin Trinidader! :)
So far you have helped me so much! I'm loving germanpod101.com
Tschüs!
Hello Shuroq,
Thank you very much for your kind feedback! ??
Your German sounds very good! "I’m Egyptian" in German is "Ich bin Ägypter"
I hope this helps!
Have a great day.
Kind regards,
Albert
Team GermanPod101.com
Hallo ?
Ich bin aus Ägypten, but how can I say that I'm Egyptian?
The videos are really helpful, Thanks.
Hello Maricarmen,
Thank you for posting! Spanien ist ein sehr schönes Land ??
Wir wünschen dir viel Erfolg beim Deutsch lernen!
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Albert
Team GermanPod101.com
Hallo, ich komme aus Spanien. Ich bin Spanierin ?
Hello,
Shouldn't it be "Welche Nationalität sind Sie?" instead of what is given in the lesson, "Welcher Nationalität sind Sie?" In other words, why "welche" is put in Dative case in this sentence?
Hi Gloria,
You probably mean: Ich bin Amerikanerin, aber (ich) lebe in Mexiko.
Cheers,
Jennifer
Team GermanPod101.com
Ich bin Amerikanerin aber wohne ich in Mexiko.
Hi Bank,
genau, beides ist richtig!
Jennifer
Team GermanPod101.com