Guten Tag! 2.1 where are you from?-1

Having asked how somebody is and what their name is, you will then want to find out wher they come from. There are two main phrases that you can employ for this. (You can listen to them by clicking on the sound icon.)

You might wish to ask somebody wher they live. There is one main phrase for this, but remember to distinguish between the "Sie" and "du" forms depending on the person to whom you are talking! Click on the sound icon to hear these phrases. 

 

Questions

1. You may have noticed that there are different words for "wher" in German. "Woher" means "from wher", wheras "wo" is the word which is used when no movement is involved. In subsequent chapters we shall also encounter "wohin" which means "to wher":

 

2. Note the word order in German when a question is being asked. The question word comes first, followed by the verb and then the subject of the sentence. We have now met several examples of this:

 

"Wie geht es Ihnen?" (= "How are you?")

"Wie heißt du?" (= "What is your name?")

"Wie ist Ihr Name?" ("What is your name?")

"Woher kommst du?" ("wher do you come from?")

"Wo wohnen Sie?" ("wher do you live?")

"Wie schreibt man das?" (= "How do you write that?")

"Wie buchstabiert man das?" (= "How do you spell that?")