Where are you from?
ご makes 出身 polite; どちら asks where.
FREE BEGINNER LESSON 5 · JAPANESE
Japanese: Where are you from?
Say where you are from and where you live.
Polite · getting acquainted. Learn the meaning, listen to the pronunciation, then practise in the interactive lesson.
Practise this lessonOpening vocabulary referenceUseful Japanese phrases and their meanings
I am from the UK.
出身 identifies your place of origin.
I live in Tokyo.
に marks the place where you live.
This is my first visit to Japan.
初めて means for the first time; 来ました means came.
How the sentence works
出身 means where someone comes from. どちら is a polite where. に with 住んでいます marks where you live. 日本語 often leaves out repeated subjects, so a short reply such as イギリスです can be natural after a clear question.
A short conversation in Japanese
Where are you from?
I am from the UK. I live in Tokyo.
I see.
Words to recognise
where (polite)
the UK
Japan
Tokyo
Listen to the whole phrase before focusing on each word. You can replay as often as you like, and the interactive lesson uses pictures and a short exchange to put the meaning in context.
Open the interactive lessonThe opening six teaching lessons are free, including the mini-tests after lessons three and six. A test accepts any answer and shows the score and corrections at the end. No typing or speaking aloud is required.
Keep learning Japanese
Free five-minute audio lesson and MP3 · Language learning games
The pronunciation uses prepared synthetic voices. Credits and licences explain the free voice models. Independent native-speaker certification is not claimed.