LinguaCountries and nationalities
A country is a place: Brazil, Japan, Italy. A nationality tells us where a person is from: Brazilian, Japanese, Italian. We often use countries and nationalities to talk about people.
Maria is from Brazil. She is Brazilian.
Use from with a country: I’m from Spain. Use a nationality after be: He’s Mexican. Do not say I’m from Spanish.
| Country | Nationality |
|---|---|
| Japan | Japanese |
| Brazil | Brazilian |
| Mexico | Mexican |
| Italy | Italian |
| Spain | Spanish |
| China | Chinese |
Ask: Where are you from?
To ask about a person’s country, say Where are you from? The answer is I’m from + country. You can also say your city with I’m from + city.
Where are you from? I’m from Mexico City.
Where is he from? He’s from Italy.
Country, city, and language
A city is smaller than a country: Tokyo, Rome, Madrid. A language is what people speak: Japanese, Italian, Spanish. Sometimes the nationality word and the language word are the same.
She is Japanese, and she speaks Japanese.
Capital letters
Use capital letters for countries, nationalities, cities, and languages. Write Brazil, Brazilian, Rome, and Italian. Do not write brazil or italian.
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| country | country | Japan is a country. |
| nationality | nationality | Her nationality is Brazilian. |
| city | city | Tokyo is a big city. |
| language | language | Spanish is an international language. |
| from | from | I’m from Italy. |
| Japanese | Japanese | Ken is Japanese. |
| Brazilian | Brazilian | Ana is Brazilian. |
| Mexican | Mexican | Luis is Mexican. |
| Italian | Italian | Giulia is Italian. |
| Spanish | Spanish | Marta speaks Spanish. |
Exercises
This lesson has 10 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 3
- fill the gap: 3
- match the pairs: 1
- build the sentence: 1
- translate the sentence: 1
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
Choose the nationality: Aiko is from Japan. She is ___.
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.