Spanish by Choice/SpanishPod newbie lesson A0007/Print version

A0007: Where Are You From?

Introduction

Yes, this is about the easiest way to find something to talk about: asking where people are from. Invaluable small talk strategies offered by Liliana and JP. Keywords are Perú – Peru and Colombia – Colombia.

• related SpanishPod lessons: A0006: How's it going?, A0047: Coffee time, A0082: My name is...
• discussion: visit the readers' forum for this lesson to discuss it or to ask questions about it
• source: SpanishPod, the original MP3 lesson content of this lesson is licensed by PraxisLanguage Ltd. under a Creative Commons 3.0 Unported license.

Dialogue

mujer:	¿De dónde eres?
hombre:	Soy de Perú. ¿Y tú?
mujer:	Yo soy de Colombia.
hombre:	¡Qué bien!

Dialogue with Translation

mujer:	¿De	dónde	eres?
	from	where	(you) are
woman:	Where are you from?

hombre:	Soy	de	Perú.	¿Y	tú?
	(I) am	from	Peru	and	you
man:	I'm from Peru. And you?

mujer:	Yo	soy	de	Colombia.
	I	am	from	Colombia
woman:	I'm from Colombia.

hombre:	¡Qué	bien!
	how	good
man:	How nice!

Vocabulary for Dialogue

la mujer	noun (feminine)	the woman
el hombre	noun (masculine)	the man
de	preposition	from, of
¿dónde?	adverb	where?
¿de dónde?	adverb	from where?
ser	verb (infinitive)	to be
(tú) eres	verb (present tense)	you are (informal, singular)
(yo) soy	verb (present tense)	I am
Perú	noun (masculine)	Peru
y	conjunction	and
tú	subject pronoun	you (informal, singular)
yo	subject pronoun	I
Colombia	noun (feminine)	Colombia
¿qué?	adverb	how?, what?
bien	adverb	well, good

Vocabulary for Audio Lesson

el ceviche	noun (masculine)	the citrus-marinated seafood salad
los incas	noun (plural, masculine)	the Incas
Machu Picchu	noun (masculine)	a Inca city
Gabriel García Márquez	noun (masculine)	a Colombian writer
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll	noun (feminine)	a Colombian goddess
hasta luego	phrase	see you later

 

More Vocabulary

This section includes grammatically related words. Some of them are required by the exercise Dialogue Recast.

ser	infinitive	to be
(yo) soy	present tense	I am
(tú) eres		you are (informal, singular)
(él/ella) es		he/she(/it) is
(usted) es		you are (formal, singular)
(nosotros/-as) somos		we are (m./f.)
(vosotros/-as) sois		you are (informal, plural, m./f.)
(ellos/ellas) son		they are (m./f.)
(ustedes) son		you are (formal, plural)

Exercises

Dialogue Translation

Cover the right column, translate from Spanish to English and uncover the right column line by line to check your answers. If possible, read the Spanish sentences aloud.

¿De dónde eres?	Where are you from?
Soy de Perú. ¿Y tú?	I'm from Peru. And you?
Yo soy de Colombia.	I'm from Colombia.
¡Qué bien!	How nice!

Dialogue Recall

Now translate from English to Spanish. Remember to say the Spanish sentences aloud.

Where are you from?	¿De dónde eres?
I'm from Peru. And you?	Soy de Perú. ¿Y tú?
I'm from Colombia.	Yo soy de Colombia.
How nice!	¡Qué bien!

Dialogue Remix

Translate this variant of the dialogue from English to Spanish.

Where are you from?	¿De dónde eres?
Where am I from?	¿De dónde soy?
From Peru, from Colombia, ...?	¿De Perú, de Colombia, ...?
Are you from Peru?	¿(Tú) eres de Perú?
I'm from Colombia.	(Yo) soy de Colombia.
How nice!	¡Qué bien!
And you?	¿Y tú?
What?	¿Qué?
Where are you from?	¿De dónde eres?

Dialogue Recast

This translation exercise requires some of the words from the More Vocabulary section.

Where are you from? (formal)	¿De dónde es (usted)?
I'm from Peru. And you? (formal, plural)	Soy de Perú. ¿Y ustedes?
We are from Colombia.	Nosotros somos de Colombia.
How nice!	¡Qué bien!