How to Say "Mexican" in Chinese

墨西哥人

mòxīgērén

In Chinese, the word for "mexican" (as a person) is 墨西哥人 (mòxīgērén).

墨西哥人 is a noun used to describe a person from Mexico or a person of Mexican descent.

Meaning: person from Mexico or of Mexican descent (noun)

What does it mean word for word?

The term is composed of 墨西哥 (mòxīgē), which is a phonetic transliteration of 'Mexico' and 人 (rén), meaning 'person'.

mòxīgērén

English speakers often mistakenly try to use 墨西哥 alone to refer to a person. However, in Chinese, you must add 人 to specify the person.

While 墨西哥 sounds like 'Mexico', the individual characters translate to 'ink', 'west', and 'older brother', which have no logical connection to the country itself.
The character 西 in 墨西哥人 means 'west' and appears in the names of many other Western nations in Chinese.
Because 墨西哥 is a phonetic approximation, the choice of characters was historically decided by translators to sound similar to 'Mexico' while still using meaningful characters.

一個墨西哥人教了他西班牙文。
A Mexican taught him Spanish.
This sentence shows how to use 墨西哥人 to describe someone teaching a language.
Tatoeba #4247369 by egg0073, translation #2264601 by _undertoad
我的朋友是墨西哥人。
My friend is Mexican.
昨晚我和墨西哥同事一起吃了晚饭。
Last night, I had dinner with my Mexican colleague.
他是墨西哥人。
Tā shì Mòxīgē rén.
He is Mexican.
我認識一位墨西哥人。
Wǒ rènshì yī wèi Mòxīgē rén.
I know a Mexican person.

Talking about a new colleague at work.

佳怡 Jiayi

那位新同事是墨西哥人嗎？
Nà wèi xīn tóngshì shì Mòxīgē rén ma?
Is that new colleague Mexican?
俊杰 Junjie

對，他是墨西哥人。
Duì, tā shì Mòxīgē rén.
Yes, he is Mexican.
佳怡 Jiayi

他會說英文嗎？
Tā huì shuō Yīngwén ma?
Does he speak English?
俊杰 Junjie

他會說英文和西班牙文。
Tā huì shuō Yīngwén hé Xībānyawén.
He speaks English and Spanish.

Sources

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