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

You are in the right place to find out everything you need to know about the basic sentence "D'où venez-vous ?". It includes a detailed guide of what it is and how to use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. And also the cool things we added like synonym, dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio and more!


Translation in English

  • Translation : Where are you from?

  • Register : Formal - Basic

Pronunciation example

Slow

Normal

  • IPA : / du vənevu ? /

aesthetic french quote dou venez vous

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What does d'où venez-vous ? mean?

Definition

The literal meaning is:

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

↓ Example in a story with French audio ↓

Finally, let's see an example in a parallel story with slow audio.

Rencontrer sa belle-mère

Meet your stepmom

Un jour, Angèle décide de présenter Joe à sa mère.
One day, Angèle decides to introduce Joe to her mother.
Cette idée stressait Joe, mais il accepte
This idea was stressing Joe, but he accepts
Ils arrivent chez la mère d'Angèle.
They arrive at the place of Angèle's mother.
Elle ouvre la porte, les salue et les invite à l'intérieur.
She opens the door, greets them and invites 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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