Nationalities in Spanish: how to say where you are from

To say where someone is from in Spanish you use a nationality word like español (Spanish), francés (French), inglés (English), alemán (German) or mexicano (Mexican). These are adjectives, so they agree with the person: a man is español and a woman is española. You use them with the verb ser: Soy español, Ella es mexicana.

Two things surprise English speakers. First, nationalities are not capitalized in Spanish — you write español, never Español. Second, most of them change ending for gender and number, just like other adjectives. The list below gives the common ones with an example, and the sections explain how the forms work and how to ask and answer where you are from.

Masculine and feminine forms

Nationalities behave like ordinary adjectives, so they agree with the person they describe. There are two main patterns. Those ending in -o swap to -a: italiano / italiana, mexicano / mexicana, ruso / rusa, chino / china. Those ending in a consonant add -a for the feminine, and often drop a written accent that is no longer needed: español / española, francés / francesa, inglés / inglesa, alemán / alemana.

Mi padre es español y mi madre es francesa.
My father is Spanish and my mother is French.

A useful group does not change for gender at all: those ending in -ense and -a. Estadounidense (American), canadiense (Canadian) and nicaragüense (Nicaraguan) are the same for a man or a woman, so only the article or context tells them apart: él es estadounidense, ella es estadounidense.

Making them plural

To talk about more than one person or a whole group, add the normal plural endings: -s after a vowel and -es after a consonant. So italiano → italianos, mexicana → mexicanas, and español → españoles, francés → franceses (the accent disappears in the plural).

Los italianos y los españoles comen tarde.
Italians and Spaniards eat late.

The plural also has the usual mixed-group rule: a group of men and women, or a group of unknown gender, takes the masculine plural. A room of Mexican men and women together is los mexicanos.

Using ser and de to say where you are from

There are two natural ways to state origin. You can name the nationality with ser, or name the country with ser de:

Soy mexicano. / Soy de México.
I am Mexican. / I am from Mexico.

Both are correct and interchangeable in most situations. Note that after ser the nationality takes no article — Soy español, not soy un español — exactly like professions. To ask, use ¿De dónde eres? (where are you from?) or the more formal ¿De dónde es usted?.

—¿De dónde eres? —Soy alemana, de Berlín.
“Where are you from?” “I’m German, from Berlin.”

Nationality words and languages

Many nationality words double as the name of the language, used in the masculine singular: el español, el francés, el inglés, el chino. Context tells you which meaning is intended — a person or a language.

Mi amiga es francesa y habla francés, inglés y español.
My friend is French and speaks French, English and Spanish.

So francesa here describes the woman (feminine), while francés names the language (always masculine). Seeing the same root do both jobs is normal, and the gender agreement on the person is what keeps them apart.

More nationalities and their patterns

Once the common dozen feel natural, a few more slot into the same rules. Many Latin American nationalities end in -o/-a: argentino / argentina, colombiano / colombiana, peruano / peruana, chileno / chilena. Others follow the -és pattern with a feminine -esa: japonés / japonesa, portugués / portuguesa, holandés / holandesa.

Two smaller groups are worth recognizing. Words ending in -ense stay the same for both genders, like canadiense and costarricense. And a set ending in -í — marroquí (Moroccan), iraní (Iranian), israelí (Israeli) — is invariable too, just adding -es or -s in the plural (marroquíes). None of these break the main idea: match the ending to the person, and keep everything lowercase.

Tengo amigos argentinos, una compañera canadiense y un vecino marroquí.
I have Argentine friends, a Canadian classmate and a Moroccan neighbour.

Common mistakes

Capitalizing the nationality

Unlike English, Spanish writes nationalities in lowercase.

Soy Español. → Soy español.
I am Spanish.

Not changing the ending for a woman

Most nationalities agree with the person, so a woman takes the feminine form.

María es alemán. → María es alemana.
María is German.

Adding “un” after ser

Like professions, a plain nationality after ser takes no article.

Soy un mexicano. → Soy mexicano.
I am Mexican.

Nationalities come up in the very first conversation you have with someone new, so a dozen of them plus the ser / ser de pattern let you introduce yourself and ask about others straight away. In Fluera you meet español, francés and mexicano inside real sentences with audio, so the words and their forms stick together. Say where you and others are from when you practice Spanish.

Practice