Asking where someone is from

The simple question "where are you from?" seems to an English speaker like it should be simple. And it is fairly simple in Chinese. But there is a problem: there are way too many ways to ask this question in Chinese. The result is that learners can feel stupid (for a pretty long time) because they can often be stumped by an unfamiliar form of what they think should be a simple question. This page will break it all down for you.

First, some examples:

What you are

• 你是哪里人？
• 你是哪里的？

Where you from

• 你从哪里来？
• 你是从哪里来的？
• 你是从什么地方来的？
• 你来自哪里？
• 你来自哪个国家？
• 你来自深，饿地方？

Where you belong to

• 你是哪个国家的？
• 那是哪个地方的？
• 你是哪里的？
• 你是什么国家的？
• 你是什么地方的？