Saying where one comes from: country and city

1. Observe the use of do, dos, da, das and de. When do we use each of them? Try to figure it out before you scroll down for the answer.

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Eu sou do Brasil.

Ele é da Itália.

Eu sou dos Estados Unidos.

Nós somos das Filipinas.

Eles são de Paris.

Eu sou do Brasil, de São Paulo.

ANSWER:

• do goes before masculine and singular countries.

• da goes before feminine and singular countries.

• dos before masculine and plural countries.

• das before feminine and plural countries.

• de is neutral and goes before cities.

There are exceptions to these rules, e.g. do Rio de Janeiro, de Portugal etc. Also, in general, de is not necessarily wrong before countries, but da(s) and do(s) are often used. Example: de Itália is OK, but da Itália may be more frequent and therefore considered more natural.

The table below shows how de and articles merge.

Taking this table into consideration, a word-for-word translation may be:

Ele é da Itália. = He is from the Italy.

2. If you opted not to interact in the comments in the previous step, let us know where you are from in the comments here. Or maybe you prefer to mention someone you know. Examples:

Eu sou da França, de Paris. / O Pierre é da França, de Paris.

Revise country names or if your country is not in the list, Google Translate should be able to help you.