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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!
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 ?“.
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!)
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.
