Beginner Lesson 3.1 – Countries & Nationalities
COUNTRIES AND NATIONALITIES IN CHINESE
- Countries and Nationalities in Chinese
- Verb: 是
- Sentence: 是字句 "The 是 Sentence Structure"
VOCABULARY
| HSK | CHINESE | PINYIN | P.O.S | ENGLISH | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 中 | zhōng | n. | middle; center | |
| 1 | 国 | guó | n. | country; nation | |
| 1 | 中国 | Zhōngguó | pn. | China | |
| 1 | 人 | rén | n. | people; person | |
| 1 | 中国人 | Zhōngguórén | pn. | Chinese (people) | |
| 1 | 是 | shì | v. | to be |
GRAMMAR
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,
| A | 是 | B | |
| wǒ 我 I |
shì 是 am |
Yīngguórén 英国人 British |
。 |
| wǒ 我 I |
shì 是 am |
Běijīngrén 北京人 Beijinger |
。 |
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你好
我姓爸爸打击
我叫欧式满爸爸打击
我是Chad人
你好
我叫 Aichatou
我是喀麦隆人
你好！
我是罗马尼亚人.
我叫CATALIN.
我姓UDREA.
我 叫 Sharni. 我是 牙买加人。
你好。你好吗？我姓苗。我叫昂慧。我是阿富汗人。我是骂着里沙里夫任。写写。
我叫艾伦 Alain， 我是加拿大人
我是孟加拉国人
你好！我叫 Trinity Holland。我是美国人。
你好， 我是美国人
Wǒ jiao Tony
Wǒ xìng Williams
Nǐ xìng shénme?
Nǐ jiao shénme?
Wǒ shì Yīng guó
Wǒ shì Yīng guó rén
Wǒ shì London rén
你好, 我是法国人
你好！我是英国人。
我是法国人
你好
我是荷兰人。
你是哪国人？
谢谢再见
你好 ， 我叫 Ivy，我是加拿大人 ！
你好
我是沙特阿拉伯人
你好， 我是 巴西人， 我叫私人表噶死啊， 我姓私人表
你好，你姓“席尔瓦”，叫“加西亚”。
Hi there, I’m a Chinese teacher (not affiliated with this website). Your name should be the above. Pinyin is “xi2 er3 wa3” & “jia1 xi1 ya4”
Or Silvi “西尔维”（xi1 er3 wei2）
Hi Lili Hao, I am a new member of the Chinesefor.us. I am not familiar on posting my practical image, voice and video in the discussion box. I wanted to post these files but I do not know how to do it ? If you have anything to help me please?
Hi there! I’m happy to help you with posting your image, voice and video files in the discussion box. The services our students use for this are Imgur for images, YouTube for videos, SoundCloud and Vocaroo for voice recordings.
To post an image using Imgur, you can upload the image to their website and then copy the link to the image. In the discussion box, you can paste the link and it will show up as an image.
To post a video using YouTube, you can upload the video to your YouTube account and then copy the link to the video. In the discussion box, you can paste the link and it will show up as a video.
To post a voice recording using SoundCloud, you can upload the recording to their website and then copy the link to the recording. In the discussion box, you can paste the link and it will show up as an audio player.
To post a voice recording using Vocaroo, you can record your voice on their website and then copy the link to the recording. In the discussion box, you can paste the link and it will show up as an audio player.
I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Hii Lili, I looked up on Google, but to confirm, is Brazil 巴西?
Thank you in advance!
It is
Hello! My name is Tamie. I am an American. I live in the state of Texas.
And, yes. I used google translate to write in Hanzi. How can my keyboard write characters?
wo shi yin dou ren
Hallo I’m from Indonesia
does Indonesia have a translation ?
thanks
你好 ！我是索马里人。
谢谢 李李
你好 我是美国人
what’s India called in chinese?
wo Shi Yin du Ren
我是印度尼西亚人 (Wǒ shì yìn dù ní xī yǎ rén)
I am Indonesian
你好！我 是 越南人
你好
我是 India人
你好，我叫 Sòng San
我是 yin du人
你好，我姓苏，我叫苏雅，我是英国人。
我 姓smey, 我叫nai reaksmey, 我是cambodia人,
我是埃塞俄比亚人.
Question. I am in North Carolina. How would I say that?
你好。我姓张。我叫罗姗。我是非律宾人。
你好， 我叫杰西。我是美国人。我今天早上去了海边跑步。
Hi, I’m from Slovenia. is there a word for Slovenia in Chinese??
how can i say Myanmar in chinese?
你 好， 我叫 王二。
我 是 中国人。
How would I say “I am English” because I’m from England
我是英国人。
ni hao , wo shi UAE ren but i dont really know how to write it in Chinese can you help me ?
你好人人
我叫 na’j’a’h
How do you say Mauritius ?
我是胡志明人， 胡志明市 是 越南国
谢谢你教我们
Ni hao
Mam li hao
How to say pakistan ???
UPDATE: I was able to find a video on youtube to help me with this. To ask someone which country they’re from, it’s apparently: 你是哪国人？Nǐ shì nǎ ɡuó rén?
Hello. I have a question… In the practice, you’re asking us to create a dialogue between two people who are asking and answering the question of where they’re from… however, I’ve re-watched the video and I don’t see where we’re taught to ask this… I attempted to use some of the words you’ve already taught us and using google translate, but i’m getting mixed answers.
How would we know how to ask someone where they’re from?
Hi, thank you so much for the lessons they are really helpful! I have a quick question, in the example given in the video the word for England was given as 英国, in the grammar section bellow this was also the word for Britain. Is there a separate word that can be used for either as they are not the same thing?
英国 is used to translate both England and Britain. 英格兰 can be used specifically for England.
how to say im from Brazil
我是墨西哥人。我叫Omar。
我是希腊人
我是雅典
你好。我叫Christian 。我是奥地利人。
你好， 我叫睿丽。 我是美国人。 我是加州人。
你好。 我叫 Imran Haider。 我是巴基斯坦国 人。
Question. I m asked what state I live in , does Michigan have a translation or would I just say Michigan?
Michigan is 密歇根(Mìxiēgēn) or 密歇根州()Mìxiēgēn Zhōu). 州(Zhōu) is state.
Names of states, cities, counties in Chinese and their pronunciations can be found on Google Translation or other online dictionary.
Hey, Lili! Russia is 俄国, right?
俄国 is technically the Russia before Soviet Union (Sūlián 苏联), and Russia after Soviet Union is usually 俄罗斯(Éluósī). Sometimes when people say 俄国 you know they’re talking about Russia though.
Thanks! That is a bit harder to memorize!
Lili Hao, in this lesson the word for a person, ren, sounds like Jen (first three letters of the name Jenny in English). Am I missing something?
For detailed pronunciation tips on the Initial r, please kindly see our Pinyin Lesson on Initials zh, ch, sh r.
I learnt basic Chinese from a local Chinese trainer in India, however, even after completing 3 months I am filled with many doubts. But once I am going through your videos I am finding this the perfect way to learn this beautiful language. Thanks Hao Li. Your presentation way is just perfect and the way I was looking for. I am going to appear for HSK exam in May this year and I hope your videos will help me preparing myself. Thanks once again for all your effort.
finally found a site that it is awesome it is very detail oriented very happy to be here 谢谢漂亮
Thank you so much! We’re very glad to know that you enjoyed our lesson on Countries in Chinese!
I love this lesson. It can help me to improve my Hanyu skills .
Thank you Lili
You’re welcome! I’m really glad that you find our lesson on Countries and Nationalities in Chinese helpful for learning Chinese! Keep it up!