Countries and nationalities

By the end of this lesson you'll be able to say your nationality, recognise the names of common countries, ask someone where they live, and say which city you live in.

Saying your nationality

To give your nationality, use être (see the verb être) plus a nationality word: Je suis canadien, Elle est française. There's no word for "a" and no extra verb. It works just like Je suis fatigué.

French nationality words change depending on who they describe. There's a basic form for a man, and a feminine form for a woman. Most follow one of three patterns.

Pattern 1: add -e

Most nationalities simply add -e for a woman.

The added -e often changes what you hear. In the basic form the last consonant is usually silent. In the feminine form it's pronounced: you can't hear the s of français, but you can hear a z sound in française. The d of allemande is sounded in the same way, and it isn't in allemand. The ending of américain is nasal, and américaine loses that nasal sound.

Pattern 2: -ien becomes -ienne

Words ending in -ien double the n before adding -e.

Here too the sound changes: the nasal ending of canadien becomes a clear n sound in canadienne.

Pattern 3: already ends in -e

If the word already ends in -e, nothing changes. A man and a woman can both be belge, suisse or britannique.

One note for people from the UK: anglais means English, specifically. If you're Scottish, Welsh or from Northern Ireland, britannique is a safe choice.

Countries

Countries in French usually come with a word for "the": la France, le Canada, les États-Unis, or l'Italie before a vowel. You'll learn how these work in the lesson on gender and articles. For now, learn each country with its little word in front.

Notice how close many countries and nationalities look: le Japon and japonais, l'Italie and italien. But they're different words, so Je suis Japon doesn't work.

Where you live

The phrase J'habite à… works with any city or town: J'habite à Paris, J'habite à Montréal. Learn it as a set phrase. The h of habite is silent, which is why je becomes j'.

For countries, French uses other small words, such as en France and au Canada. They have their own lesson later, on prepositions with countries and cities. Until then, name your city.

What's next

Next, the lesson on politeness and la bise shows how all these phrases fit into real encounters with French people. When you're ready to say you live in a whole country, go to the lesson on prepositions with places.