"Which country are you from?"

Translation: 你是哪国人？

[Manu900579]

Why it is not like:
你是哪国人吗？
Is it not 吗 missing because it's a question?

[LukasGroth]

哪 already is a question word, "which". You don't need another one.

吗 is one possible way of marking yes or no-questions.

[Camilo829418]

Thanks, but i have another question, where is convenient to put in the "wh-Question" in chinese sentences, like 吗 at the end of the sentences?

[Gabrielle145359]

Unlike English, word order does not change in Chinese between statements and questions. You put the question word in the same place in the sentence that the answer will go.

[Joy583458]

吗 is for yes or no questions

[Gabrielle145359]

吗 turns a statement into a yes/no question. This is not a yes/no question.

[Joy583458]

吗 is for yes or no questions

[PequenoZero]

Why is there a 人, when its asking for country and not the nationality?

[CinnamonTe1]

Without 人, the Chinese question would mean "which country are you?" and it doesn't make sense.

中国 = China (a physical place)
中国人 = China person, Chinese (a person or people from China)

哪国 = which country ? ( a physical place)
哪国人 = a person or people from which country?

It's the same structure as it would be in a statement except the question word 哪 replaces the name of the country to make it a question.

你是中国人。= You are a person from China. / You are Chinese.
你是哪国人？= You are a person from which country?

Of course the more natural way to say it in English is "what/which country are you from?" English works differently as a language so you can't always expect translations to be word for word or structured the same.

Also, by using the verb 是, you are specifically asking about what a person "is" and not where they "come from." A person cannot literally be (是) a country or a physical place. If you used a different verb, such as 来自, then you wouldn't need to add 人 because it would be asking what place the person comes from.

你是中国人。= You are a Chinese person.
你来自中国。= You come from China.

[WhenCowsFl]

BUt Duolingo never defined '哪'!

[ScottSumne2]

(Just to clarify, this isn't me trying to be rude, I'm legitimately trying to help you understand.)

I think the reason for that was to make you mentally figure it out by yourself. That is the best way to learn- you won't learn how to speak fluently if every answer is given to you.

[TayoMoore]

Why is there no question marker? It just says: you are which country. Why isn't there a ma?

[ALLintolearning3]

"which" is the question word. The question marker that you are thinking of is for yes or no questions.

[ScottSumne2]

A lot of people here are wondering why 吗 is not used in this sentance. I think I can help.

In Chinese, there are multiple types of question words. 吗 refers to yes-no questions. (So if the question was "are you Chinese" then you would need to use 吗。”你是中国人吗?”)

In this case, you use the word 哪 meaning which. In Chinese, question words will often (but not always) take the place of their answers.
Example:
Q: 你是哪国人?
A: 我是美国人。

Here are a few types of question words that are commonly used in Chinese:

吗(ma): Used to indicate that a statement is a yes or no question.
Q: 你会说中文吗?
A: 我会(说中文)

哪(nă): means which. It is often used to ask which kind of food you want or which location you hail from, but naturally it has numerous uses.
Q: 你是哪国人?
A: 我是中国人。

几(ji3): Used to indicate an unknown number of things, typically between 1 and 10.
Q: 你几岁? (How old are you?)
A: 我是七岁。(I am 7)

There are several types of question words, these are just a few basic ones.

[Daesii]

Is it possible to say: 你从哪国来？

[UrTinyEarthling]

Isn't "你那是国人" correct, too?

[Procellis]

No, not even if you change the 那 in your sentence to 哪. That is not the correct word order.