¿cuál es tu nacionalidad?
The English phrase "what is your nationality?" is translated into Spanish as ¿cuál es tu nacionalidad?
This phrase is a question used to ask which country a person belongs to by citizenship.
Which one should you use?
While ¿cuál es tu nacionalidad? is grammatically correct, it can sound overly formal or bureaucratic. In natural conversation, people more commonly use ¿de dónde eres? to ask about someone's origin.
How does it change in a sentence?
The word cuál is used instead of qué because the question is asking to select one specific nationality from a set of possibilities. Use the possessive adjective su instead of tu to ask the question in a formal setting or to someone you do not know well.
Did you know?
- In Spanish, nationalities are not capitalized, so you would write mexicano or español with a lowercase letter unless they start a sentence.
- If you ask ¿de dónde eres? in Spain, you might receive an answer specifying a region, like soy andaluz, rather than just the country.
- The word es is a cognate of the English word 'is' and the ancient Sanskrit word अस्ति, both tracing back to the same Proto-Indo-European root.
Examples in context
- Para el formulario, ¿cuál es tu nacionalidad?For the form, what is your nationality?
- Perdón, ¿cuál es tu nacionalidad?Excuse me, what is your nationality?
Example conversation
Two people are meeting for the first time at a youth hostel.
- AlejandroHola, soy Alejandro. ¿Cuál es tu nacionalidad?Hi, I'm Alejandro. What is your nationality?
- LucíaHola, Alejandro. Soy mexicana.Hi, Alejandro. I am Mexican.
- Alejandro¿De México? ¿De qué ciudad eres?From Mexico? What city are you from?
- LucíaSoy de la Ciudad de México.I am from Mexico City.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries cuál, es, nacionalidad, tu, CC BY-SA 4.0.
