Lesson 11: Country and Nationality in Chinese
The first question people may ask you when you travel to China would be "where are you from?". This lesson will teach you the proper response to the question in Chinese. As well as how to find out other's nationality in Chinese.
Vocabulary:
| Chinese Character | Pinyin | Pronunciation | English Translation | |
| 哪个 | nǎ gè | which | ||
| 人 | rén | man; person; people; humanity | ||
| 也 | yě | also; too; | ||
| 国家 | guó jiā | country, nation | ||
| 国 | guó | nation, country, nation-state | ||
| 家 | jiā | house, home, residence; family | ||
| 中国 | zhōng guó | China | ||
| 中国人 | zhōng guó rén | Chinese People | ||
| 日本 | rì běn | Japan | ||
| 本 | běn | root, origin, source; basis | ||
| 日本人 | rì běn rén | Japanese People | ||
| 美国 | měi guó | America | ||
| 美 | měi | beautiful, pretty; pleasing | ||
| 美国人 | měi guó rén | American People | ||
| 英国 | yīng guó | Britain | ||
| 英 | yīng | blossom; petal, flower, leaf; brave | ||
| 英国人 | yīng guó rén | British People | ||
| 他们 | tā men | they; them | ||
Tips:
- Many country names in Chinese are one character plus the character "country", which is "guo-国". e.g. USA = mei+guo = 美国， France = fa+guo = 法国.
- The simplest way to describe nationality is to add the word "people which is "ren-人" in Chinese after the country's name. e.g. Chinese = zhong guo ren = 中国人, American = mei guo ren = 美国人.
Dialog A:
Click to hear the above dialog.
English Translation A:
What's your nationality?
I am Chinese.
Is she Chinese too?
No, she is Japanese.
Dialog B:
Click to hear the above dialog.
English Translation B:
Which country are you going to?
We are going to China.
Are you American?
Yes, we are American.
Are they also American?
No, they are British.
Chinese Calligraphy:
Questions and Comments
