Learn the key pattern to say where you're from
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| Let's take a closer look at the conversation. |
| Do you remember how Hugues Henry asks, |
| "Where are you from?" |
| Hugues Henry: D'où venez-vous ? |
| First is d'où. “From where.". D'où. |
| This starts with de, which translates as "from" in this context. De (enunciated). De. |
| Next is où, meaning "where." Où (enunciated). Où. |
| De is contracted with où to form d'où. |
| Next is venez. "Come," as in "you come." Venez (enunciated). Venez. |
| Venez is from the verb, venir, meaning "to come." Venir. |
| After this is vous, which is literally the plural form of "you," as in "you all." But it's also the formal way to address a single person, as is the case here. Vous (enunciated).Vous. |
| Together, venez-vous translates as "you come." Venez-vous. |
| All together, D'où venez-vous ? literally means "From where come you?" But it translates as "Where are you from?" D'où venez-vous ? |
| Remember this question. You'll hear it again later in this lesson. |
| Now, let's take a closer look at the response. |
| Do you remember how Mark Lee says, |
| "I'm from New York." |
| Mark Lee: Je viens de New York. |
| First is je. "I." Je (enunciated). Je. |
| Next is viens, meaning "come," as in "I come." Viens (enunciated). Viens. |
| Viens is from the verb, venir, meaning "to come." Venir. |
| After this is de, which means "from" in this context. De. |
| Last is the city, New York. "New York." New York (enunciated). New York. |
| All together, it's Je viens de New York. This literally means "I come from New York," but can translate as "I'm from New York." Je viens de New York. |
| The pattern is |
| Je viens de {CITY NAME}. |
| "I'm from {CITY NAME}." |
| Je viens de {CITY NAME}. |
| To use this pattern, simply replace the {CITY NAME} placeholder with the name of your hometown. |
| Imagine you're from Sydney. Sydney. Sydney (enunciated). Sydney. |
| Say |
| "I'm from Sydney." |
| Ready? |
| Je viens de Sydney. |
| "I'm from Sydney." |
| Je viens de Sydney. |
| When talking about where you’re from, de is used before feminine nouns. |
| All cities are feminine in French, so when talking about your hometown or home city, use de. |
| You can also use this pattern with countries. However, countries can be either masculine or feminine. |
| If you use this pattern with a country name that's masculine, use du instead of de. |
| For example, |
| Je viens de France. France, "France," is feminine. |
| Je viens du Japon. Japon, "Japan," is masculine. |
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