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- "Where are you from?"
"Where are you from?"
Translation:Woher kommst du?
92 Comments
197
Frankly, I think it's better to mix some older material in with the new. That way we have to keep thinking instead of running on autopilot. And I'm also doing a "testing out of level."
I answered the question with "Wo kommen Sie aus?" = Where are you from? = Where do you come from? = What country do you come from? I assumed this would correspond to the possible answer "Ich komme aus Deutschland." From one of mizinamo's comments below this inference was wrong. The corresponding question is actually "Woher kommen Sie?" or "Woher kommt ihr?" or "Woher kommst du?" I am now down to one heart.
P.S. Duo asked the same question again. I got it right and tested out of level 4. :)
217
I answered the same . I think in 'woher kommst du' 'kommst' is redundant, the 'her' of 'woher' already covered the 'from' part. But it does not matter what I think. If I want to learn a language I have to learn as it comes, in all its forms with all its flaws.
1523
I had 'woher kommen ...' given to me. This is the first time that the formal Sie has been shown. You can't just spring it on people in the middle of a lesson on questions. Just a short intro as in.. 'Hey, this exists', would be fine. The formal you section is still 8 lessons down. I'm not that far into it.
849
Not wrong? Are you sure? "Woher" implies movement. Wouldn't the verb "sein" be incompatible with that?
857
woher is simply "where from" or "from where". It can imply movement, but not necessarily. In this case, it is used to question one's origins. Although, kommt absolutely implies movement whereas bist does not.
I'm not really sure there is a real difference in meaning between these two, it seems subtle. But, to me (nonnative) one is more general while the other seems more specific to one's origins:
Woher kommt ihr? - "Where are you coming from?", "Where do you come from?"
"Ich komme von der Arbeit. Aber sie kommt von der Schule."
"Ich komme aus Amerika und sie is aus England."
or, "Wir kommen aus der Cinima."
Woher bist du? - "Where are you from?"
"Ich bin aus Amerika." or "Ich bin aus Berlin."
Or, you can say, "Ich bin von meiner Mutter" if you want to be a smartass.
I'm not sure that this is helpful, but this is my take.
Wir kommen aus Deutschland - the verb is kommen
Wo kommen Sie aus? - you're right: we do not say that
Woher kommen Sie? Wo kommen Sie her? are used instead.
woher means "from where?"
So it doesn't specifically ask "from out of where?" -- that would be woraus?. But Woraus kommen Sie? would sound like "What do you come out of?", as if it would be an egg or something like that.
In the end, it might be convention -- aus Deutschland sounds just fine to me in a way that woraus? does not.
Sie (capitalised!) is the nominative form and is used when it's the subject of a verb such as kommen.
Ihnen (also capitalised!) is the dative case; you might have come across it in a context such as Wie geht es Ihnen? "How are you?", where the grammatical subject in the German sentence is es -- the two phrases do not translate literally.
210
I wrote 'Woher sind sie' and they marked it wrong despite it being the English. If they want you to put 'woher kommen Sie' why don't they put Where do you come from? in the question?
857
I think "Woher sind sie" would translate closer to "Where from are you?" which (in English) could be acceptable as a form of "Where are you from," but it doesn't sound very good. As a matter of fact, it may actually be improper English, too. I mean, just try to use it in conversation:
"Mr. Higgins, where from are you?" (Interesting note
: Grammarly marked "where from" as incorrect English on this example.)
No, it doesn't sound right, to me either. When I hear this phrase, my brain hears a bit of Old English influence in it.
"Woher kommt ihr", "Woher kommst du", and "Woher kommen Sie" all remind me of:
"Where commeth ye [from]?"
210
Sorry, EdTyrone, I think you misunderstood my question. I am English and I understand that the word order isn't the same in German. Woher kommen Sie? means 'where do you come from?' but 'where are you from?' would be woher sind sie' yet they had marked it as wrong despite it being the question form in English. Note: From where....? would be the more formal accepted form in English, 'where from....? could never be accepted.
500
The version of the question I got was Wohen kommen __? It said the answer is Sie. Now, while that might be the formal version or something, it isn't something I've encountered there, so this is a poorly framed question. I put ihr, but I guess that would be kommt ihr, so this question doesn't make sense at this phase.
446
I had this as a "drag the refrigerator magnets" thing, and the available words were:
woher kommen sie ihnen
Note how there are no capitals. This format doesn't have them. So the formal "Sie" looks like ordinary "sie" which is "she" or "they." And formal Sie apparently won't be taught until much later. Thanks, Duolingo!
wohir is NOT a german word Woher means "From Where" Woher kommst du" Where are you from, or literally "From where come you"
470
Perhaps you meant "wohin", which means "where to" as in "Wohin gehst du" or "Wo gehst du hin". Where are you going (to).
Wo kommst du aus?
That is not correct German.
And if you were to correct it to Woraus kommst du?, it wouldn't mean "Where do you come from?" (origin) but "Where are you coming out of?" (out of a box? out of a suitcase?).
For origin, ask Wo kommst du her? or Woher kommst du?, even though the answer will usually use aus.
Woher kommen SIE is FORMAL. To be used with people you do not know, and being polite with them Woher kommst DU is FAMILIAR; to be used with people you know well..
There I cleaned it up for you Mizinamo. しょうがな Shō ga nai It's like the difference in Japanese between wakarimasen and wakaranai. Wakarimasen is polite. Wakaranai (without N) is used between friends and among family members. Sie and Ihnen is polite, DU is used among friends and certain family members based upon their choice.