Woher kommst du?: countries, cities and languages

Woher? Wo? – where you come from and where you live

Three verbs carry the second minute of any first conversation. kommen aus + place says where you come from: Ich komme aus Spanien, aus Madrid. wohnen in + place says where you live now: Ich wohne in Berlin. sprechen + language takes no preposition and no article: Ich spreche Deutsch und Englisch. The questions are Woher kommst du? and Wo wohnst du? – woher asks “from where”, wo asks “where”, and mixing them up is the classic beginner’s slip. Languages are nouns in German, so they start with a capital letter, and most of them end in -isch: Englisch, Spanisch, Russisch, Japanisch.

Ich komme aus Spanien und wohne in Berlin.I come from Spain and live in Berlin.

ich, du, er, sie, es …: the personal pronouns

German verbs change their ending with every person: -e, -st, -t, -en, -t, -en. Learn the endings once and kommen and wohnen follow them exactly. One word needs care: sie means both “she” and “they”, and Sie with a capital letter is the polite “you” – the verb tells them apart (sie kommt = she comes, sie kommen = they come). ihr is “you” for several friends at once. sprechen changes its vowel in two persons: du sprichst, er spricht – the e becomes i.

aus Deutschland, aus der Schweiz: countries

Most country names have no article: aus Deutschland, in Österreich, aus Japan. A few are feminine and always keep their article, which changes after aus and in: die Schweiz → aus der Schweiz, in der Schweiz; die Türkei → aus der Türkei. Cities never take an article: aus Wien, in Zürich. German is spoken in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Switzerland has four national languages – German, French, Italian and Romansh.

Sie kommt aus der Schweiz und wohnt in Wien.She comes from Switzerland and lives in Vienna.