LESSON NOTES

Learn Dutch in Three Minutes #11

What is Your Nationality?

CONTENTS
2 Grammar

# 11
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GRAMMAR

The focus of this lesson is talking about your nationality in Dutch

Topic 1: How to use the verb "to be"

Sentence from the lesson:

Waar kom je vandaan?
"Where do you come from?"

1. When you meet a new person in the Netherlands, they might ask you Waar kom je
vandaan? which is the equivalent of "Where are you from?" It literally means "Where
do you come from?" in Dutch.
Waar means "where," and you're familiar with je, the word for "you."
Kom is a conjugated form of the verb "to come," komen.
Finally, vandaan means "from."

2. To answer, you just say Ik ben, which means "I am," and then your nationality.
For example:
Ik ben Amerikaans
"I am American."
Just replace Amerikaans with your own nationality.
"I am German" is Ik ben Duits.
"I am Italian" is Ik ben Italiaans.
"I am Brazilian" is Ik ben Braziliaans.

3. You could also answer with Ik kom uit Duitsland, which means "I come from
Germany," for example. Ik kom means "I come," and uit means "from." In that case,
you would also have to change the nationality to the name of the country, like we do
in English, so "I come from [country]"
For example:
Ik kom uit Frankrijk
"I am from France."
Ik kom uit Australië
"I am from Australia."

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4. To return the question you can simply say En jij? which is "And you?"

Language Tip!

You'll find that the nationalities in Dutch are very similar to their English equivalents. Also note
that we write nationality names and country names with a capital letter, just like in English!
Easy, right?

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