Learn French: Il vient d'Allemagne, il est allemand. - He comes from Germany, he is German.

Il vient d'Allemagne, il est allemand.

He comes from Germany, he is German.

Breakdown of Il vient d'Allemagne, il est allemand.

être

to be

of / from / any (in negative sentences) / about (concerning)

venir

to come

Questions & Answers about Il vient d'Allemagne, il est allemand.

How does d'Allemagne relate to the question word d'où?

If you wanted to ask where he comes from, you would use d'où (from where), like in D'où vient-il ?. The d' in both d'où and d'Allemagne is the preposition de (from). It drops the 'e' and uses an apostrophe because the next word starts with a vowel.

Why is it d'Allemagne and not de l'Allemagne?

When talking about coming from a feminine country (most countries ending in 'e', like Allemagne), French just uses de (or d'). You drop the 'the' (la or l') that you normally use with the country's name.

Why is Allemagne capitalized but allemand is written with a lowercase 'a'?

In French, country names are capitalized (like Allemagne). But nationalities are NOT capitalized when they are used to describe someone, as in il est allemand.

Why isn't there a word for 'a' or 'an', like il est un allemand?

When stating someone's nationality or profession right after the verb être (to be), you don't use un or une. The nationality acts like an adjective, so you simply say il est allemand.