Discover the French quote "D'où venez-vous"

You are in the right place to learn all the things you want to know about the basic sentence “D’où venez-vous”.

Including a complete guide of what it is and how you can use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. As well as the useful stuff we added like slow pronunciation audio, synonym, dialogue example and more!

Oh and… you can find more of these sentences explained on this page plus the directory of all our French words guides on this page. Enjoy!

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Translation in English

Pronunciation example

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does d'où venez-vous ? mean?

Definition

The literal meaning is:

  • D’où → From where
  • Venez-vous ? → Are you from?

This is the classic and neutral way to ask someone: “Where are you from?” in French, but you can also use “Vous venez d’où ?“. The informal version is “T’es d’où ?“.

How to use it

If someone asks you: “D’où venez-vous ?” you can answer with “Je viens du Brésil, et vous ?” (I’m from Brazil, and you?)

Or you can simply start by asking: “Tu viens d’où ?“.

Note that the precise meaning can depend on context. If French people meet each other, this question means “Which city/region are you from in France?” but when one of the people isn’t French it will mean “Which country are you from?“.

Plus, this question can sometimes be painful when you are born somewhere, but grew up somewhere else and are even currently living somewhere else…

In this case, you have to decide which one represents you the most. And if you don’t know, you can always say: “Je suis un citoyen du monde !” (I’m a citizen of the world!)

Funny stuff

The informal version “T’es d’où ?” sounds exactly like “T’es doux ?” which means “Are you sweet/gentle?“. So don’t be surprised if sometimes French people are having fun, answering you “Oui” with a smile.

Synonyms

  • D’où viens-tu ? (“Where are you from“)(Neutral)
  • Tu viens d’où ? (“Where are you from“)(Informal)
  • Tu es d’où ? (“Where are you from“)(Informal)
  • T’es d’où ? (“Where are you from“)(Informal)
  • Vous venez d’où ? (“Where are you from“)(Formal)
  • Vous êtes d’où ? (“Where are you from“)(Formal)

Example in a story with French audio

Now, let’s see a complete example of this phrase in a story with slow French audio and the English translation below.
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Rencontrer sa belle-mère
Meet your stepmom
___
Un jour, Angèle décida de présenter Joe à sa mère.
One day, Angèle decided to introduce Joe to her mother.
Cette idée stressait Joe, mais il accepta
This idea was stressing Joe, but he accepted
Ils arrivèrent chez la mère d’Angèle.
They arrived at the place of Angèle’s mother.
Elle ouvrit la porte, les salua et les invita à l’intérieur.
She opened the door, greeted them and invited them inside.
Joe avait peur de dire une bêtise ou de ne pas comprendre quelque chose.
Joe was afraid to say something stupid or to not understand something.
Angèle essayait de le calmer et l’encourageait à être lui même.
Angèle was trying to calm him and encouraging him to be himself.
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