German as a foreign language – Lesson 2
Where are you from? Talking about your origin in German
You can already introduce yourself. Now let’s cover the next thing that comes up in almost every first conversation: where you’re from.
Lesson 2: „Woher kommst du?“
To talk about where you’re from, German uses the verb kommen („to come“) together with the word aus („from“).
| German | Literal meaning | What it really means |
|---|---|---|
| Woher kommst du? | „From where do you come?“ | Where are you from? |
| Ich komme aus … | „I come from …“ | I’m from … |
Saying where you’re from
Use ich komme aus followed by the name of your country or city.
Ich komme aus Spanien. — I’m from Spain.
Ich komme aus Aachen. — I’m from Aachen.
Ich komme aus Indien. — I’m from India.
Asking someone else
Informally, among friends or classmates:
Woher kommst du? — Where are you from?
Formally, using Sie (as introduced in Lesson 1):
Woher kommen Sie? — Where are you from? (formal)
A quick tip on countries and articles
Most country names in German don’t need an article: Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien. But a few do — keep an eye out for:
- die Schweiz — Switzerland
- die Türkei — Turkey
- der Iran — Iran
- die USA (plural!) — the USA
For now, just remember: ich komme aus der Schweiz, ich komme aus den USA — we’ll dig deeper into cases in a later lesson.
A mini-dialogue
Your turn
Say where you’re from:Ich komme aus ____.
Ask a friend:Woher kommst du?
Practice the formal version:Woher kommen Sie?
Next: „Wie geht es dir?“
You can now say your name and where you’re from. Next, we learn how to ask someone how they’re doing.
Bis bald! (See you soon!)
