Beginner Lesson 3.1 – Countries & Nationalities

Grammar 1: Countries and Nationalities in Chinese · HSK 1

If we want to introduce our nationalities in Chinese, we can use this structure:

Country Name + 人

So "country name + 人" suggests one's identity of having this country's nationality. And if we want to say our hometown, for example which city or province we are from, we can use this structure:

City / State / Province + 人

So "state/province/city... + 人" suggests one's identity of being from the state/province/city...Here are some examples:

• Zhōngguó rén 
  中国人
  Chinese
• Měiguó rén
  美国人
  American
• Běijīng rén
  北京人
  people from Beijing (City)
• Sìchuān rén
  四川人
  people from Sichuan (Province)
• Jiāzhōu rén
  加州人
  people from California (State)

Grammar 2: Verb 是 · HSK 1

shì 是 to be

Generally, 是 can be translated as "to be" in English, but "to be" in English cannot be directly translated into 是 for every situation. We can use 是 to introduce one's nationality(or other identity, title...) in Chinese.

• wǒ shì Zhōngguó ren
  我是中国人。
  I am Chinese
• wǒ shì Měiguó ren
  我是美国人。
  I am American
• wǒ shì Běijīng rén
  我是北京人。
  I'm from Beijing

Grammar 3: The 是 Sentence Structure · 是字句 · HSK 1

The 是 Sentence Structure, shìzìjù 是字句 is one of the most common sentence structures in Chinese, if not the most common one. The 是 Sentence Structure goes like this:

A 是 B

The example we learned today is the first use of the 是 Sentence Structure, and that is when:

(1) A "belongs to" the category, group or definition of B, and
(2) B tells about A's identity or nature.

For example,