3.1 Nationalities
In Chinese, many countries can be identified as they have ‘guó 国’ at the end. For example:
- zhōng guó 中国 = China
- yīng guó 英国 = Britain
- fā guó 法国 = France
- dé guó 德国 = Germany
There are, however, other countries and cities that do not have ‘guó 国’ at the end, such as:
- xī bān yá 西班牙 = Spain
- yì dà lì 意大利 = Italy
- lúnd ūn 伦敦 = London
- bĕi jīng 北京 = Beijing
Once you know the name of the country, nationalities in Mandarin Chinese are quite easy to learn. To say the nationality you only need to add the word ‘rén’ – which, as you’ve already learned, means ‘person’ – to the country name.
To find out someone’s nationality you would ask:
- 你是哪国人? nĭ shì nǎ guó rén? = Where are you from?
The reply to this question would then be:
- 我是中国人 wǒ shì zhōng guó rén = I’m Chinese.
- 我是英国人 wǒ shì yīng guó rén = I am British.
- 我是西班牙人 wǒ shì xī bān yá rén = I’m Spanish.
Then, if you want to know the specific area in the country someone is from you would ask:
- 你是中国什么地方人？ nĭ shì zhōng guó shén me dì fang rén? = What place in China are you from? (lit. you are China what place person?)
Transcript: Audio 18
- 您是英国什么地方人？ nín shì yīng guó shén me dì fang rén? = Whereabouts in the UK are you from? (lit. You are UK what place person?)
Transcript: Audio 19
In response to this, you may hear Chinese people say:
- 我是北京人wǒ shì bĕi jīng rén = I’m from Beijing (lit. I’m Beijing person).
The question 什么地方... shén me dì fang means ‘What part of’. As you can see, the word order in Chinese differs to that of English, but you will learn more of that as you develop further learning of the language.
Learn more countries and nationalities in Lesson 3 of the Chinese@OU app [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
Activity 9 Names and nationalities
Listen to the audio extract below in which Mr Wang ( 王先生 wáng xiān sheng ) and Miss Li ( 李小姐 lĭ xiǎo jie ) talk about their places of origin. Identify their nationalities and the name of the city you hear, in the order you hear them. Do not worry if you do not understand the whole conversation
You can find the full transcript by clicking on ‘Reveal answer’.
Answer
Well done!
- 中国 zhōng guó (China) - is first
- 北京 běi jīng (Beijing) - is second
- 英国 yīng guó (UK/Britain) - is third
- 伦敦 lún dūn (London) – is fourth
The transcript is available below:
| wang jing: | 您好，我叫王京。 nín hǎo, wǒ jiào wáng jīng. (Hello, my name is wáng jīng) |
| li xiao ying: | 您好，我叫李小英。 nín hǎo, wǒ jiào lǐ xiǎo yīng. (Hello, my name is lǐ xiǎo yīng) |
| wang jing: | 李小姐, 您是哪国人？ lǐ xiǎo jie, nín shì nǎ guó rén? (lǐ xiǎo jie, where are you from?) |
| li xiao jing: | 我是中国人。 wǒ shì zhōng guó rén. (I am Chinese) |
| wang jing: | 您是中国什么地方人？ nín shì zhōng guó shén me dì fang rén? (What part of China are you from?) |
| li xiao jing: | 我是北京人。王先生， 您是不是英国人？ wǒ shì běi jīng rén. wáng xiān sheng, nín shì bu shì yīng guó rén? (I am from Beijing. Mr Wáng, are you English?) |
| wang jing: | 是，我住在伦敦。 shì, wǒ zhù zài lún dūn. (Yes, I live in London) |