Where are you from?

Question

¿De dónde eres?

• ¿De dónde eres? - qfreed 8 de Ago, 2009
• Hi Jose, I made minor changes to your thread, I just gave you the correct accent marks as Quentin commented also. - eric_collins 8 de Ago, 2009

Answer 1

I thought it was "Donde este?"

What is the difference with these two, por favor?

"¿Donde este?" means "Where this?" "¿Donde esté?" makes little sense, but it would be something like "Where you may be?" "¿Dónde está?" means "Where are you/is he/is she?"

"Where are you from" requires four words. Now count: "¿De dónde eres (tú)?", "¿De dónde es (usted)?". "Dónde" is "where", "eres" or "es" are both "are you", and "de" is "from" here.

Answer 2

De DonDERES too ? i.e., the donde & eres sound like a single word, donderus or somthing similiar. Is that how I should sound when i say it?

It sounds like a single word, because it should be pronounced as a single word in Spanish. The "Acapela" sound is reasonably accurate here.

This "joining" of words happens when a word ends with a vowel, and the next begins with a vowel, although it is more pronounced with some combinations more than others. The technical term for this, if you want to know, is "sinalefa" ("synalepha" in English).

¿De dónde eres?

Answer 3

Synthesized voices (with primitive hardware/software [think of HAL in the movie 2002]) pronounce words in isolation. Humans blend their utterances into "breath groups" (which almost always span multiple words). Pausing after every word can result in "intelligible" speech but it is not "natural" speech.

Answer 4

I thought it was "Donde este?"

What is the difference with these two, por favor?

And if that was a question, I'm from U.S. (Virginia)

Rachel

Answer 5

Hola Rachel, Es "De dónde eres" o "De dónde es usted" depende. Y José... Soy de los Estados Unidos y vivo en el estado de Tenesí.

Answer 6

Soy de Oregon (los Estados Unidos). =)

Answer 7

If you're wondering how to say "where are you from," I think you have your answer. If you're wondering where our users are from, there's actually a pretty legendary thread addressing just that:

De Dónde Eres?

Answer 8

¿De dónde eres tú ?

When i put that in acapela, Antonio's voice, sounds like he's saying:

De DonDERES too ? i.e., the donde & eres sound like a single word, donderus or somthing similiar. Is that how I should sound when i say it?

That is probably why I have so much trouble understanding the spoken language. If they say each word separately, then I can often understand what they are saying. But of course people don't speak that way. When the words melt together, its hard.

Rachel

Answer 9

"De dónde eres tú" is just on of many phrases where the word sounds like two combined, someone ought to make a reference article about things like that

Answer 10

someone ought to make a reference article about things like that

It wasn't a reference article, but I believe that Christopher had a blog entry discussing that point when addressing why Spanish students and non-natives believe that Spanish (hispanic) speakers talk at a faster rate than some other languages. Search for it. It was interesting.