Module 2 of 10
Where you are from
Countries, nationalities, and the ending that changes for you.
There are two ways to answer where are you from, and they are not interchangeable in form. Je viens de… takes a place: de Delhi, de Lyon, du Canada, d'Inde — and de becomes d' in front of a vowel, which is why it is d'Inde and not de Inde. Je suis… takes a nationality word, and that word changes depending on who is saying it: indien if you are a man, indienne if you are a woman. Pick the one that is true for you now and keep it; swapping endings mid-conversation is the single most common thing that makes a beginner sound rehearsed.
Nationalities are written in lower case in French — française, canadien, anglais — and they are capitalised only when they name the person rather than describe them. English readers put the capital in by reflex, and a transcript full of Indien and Français is the first thing a reviewer notices. The feminine is usually the masculine plus -e, which often wakes up a consonant that was silent: anglais ends in a vowel sound, anglaise ends in a z sound. That is the sound rule from Foundation module three doing real work.
Played by your device’s own French voice. It is a synthetic voice, not a recording of a teacher — close enough to learn the shape of a word, not close enough to copy exactly.
- Je viens d'IndeI come from India
- Je suis indienI am Indian — said by a man
- Je suis indienneI am Indian — said by a woman
- Je viens de DelhiI come from Delhi — a city takes plain de
- Tu viens d'où ?Where are you from? — to someone your own age
- Vous venez d'où ?Where are you from? — the polite form
- Elle est françaiseShe is French — no capital letter on the nationality
- Il est canadienHe is Canadian
Je viens de + place, je suis + nationality. Nationalities are lower case, and the feminine -e usually makes a silent consonant audible.