where are you from in Esperanto

“Where are you from?” in Esperanto is El kie vi venas? (ehl KEE-eh vee VEH-nahs), literally “out of where do you come?”. El means “out of” and shows origin, kie is “where”, and veni is “to come”. De kie vi venas? is used too. You answer with the same pattern: Mi venas el Pollando “I’m from Poland”.

Other ways to say it

• De kie vi venas?Where do you come from?
• El kie vi estas?Where are you from? (the wording in Zamenhof’s translation of Andersen, quoted by PMEG)
• De kie vi devenas?Where do you originate from? (with deveni)

How to reply

• Mi venas el Pollando.I’m from Poland.
• Mi estas el Francio.I’m from France.
• Mi devenas de Kanado.I’m from Canada.

Example sentences

• De kie vi venas, Tom?Where are you from, Tom?
• De kie vi venas? – Mi venas el Francujo.Where are you from? – I am from France.

Esperantopedia · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR

PMEG says el often shows origin, while de marks where a movement starts, as in Mi venas de la avo “I’m coming from grandfather’s”. For a country or town of origin Tatoeba has both, for example Mi estas el Romo and Mi estas de Tokio.

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