Introducing Myself: Age, Nationality, and Languages

1. Stating Your Age: Wie alt bist du?

One of the first pieces of personal information often shared is age. The structure in German is pleasantly similar to English. You'll combine the verb sein (to be), which you learned in Module 2, with the numbers you practiced in Module 1.

The key phrase is Ich bin ... Jahre alt (I am ... years old).

For instance, the infographic below shows how someone named Anna would state her age.

To formalize this, let's look at the specific question and answer format.

As you can see, the question is Wie alt bist du? and the answer is a straightforward sentence using sein. For example, if you are 21, you would say: Ich bin einundzwanzig Jahre alt.

2. Stating Your Origin and Nationality: Woher kommst du?

Next, people will naturally be curious about where you are from. There are two primary ways to express this.

1. Ich komme aus [Land] - I come from [country].
   This is the most common and versatile phrase. It uses the verb kommen (to come) and the preposition aus (from/out of).
2. Ich bin [Nationalität] - I am [nationality].
   This uses the verb sein and a specific word for your nationality.

An important detail is that nationality words, like many nouns for people, have masculine and feminine forms. The feminine form is most often created by adding -in to the end of the masculine form.

A fantastic way to see this in action and learn the names of various countries and nationalities is to watch this video. It systematically goes through different countries, showing you the pattern for stating origin, language, and nationality.

As the video demonstrates:

• Ich komme aus Spanien. → Ich bin Spanier / Ich bin Spanierin.
• Ich komme aus Russland. → Ich bin Russe / Ich bin Russin.

Notice also that while most countries don't use an article, a few do, like die Türkei or die USA (plural). For these, the preposition aus combines with the article:

• Ich komme aus der Türkei. (from the Turkey)
• Ich komme aus den USA. (from the USA)

3. Stating the Languages You Speak: Welche Sprachen sprichst du?

As a language learner, you'll frequently be asked which languages you speak. The verb for this is sprechen (to speak), which you'll remember from our lesson on strong verbs is irregular in the du and er/sie/es forms.

The key phrase is Ich spreche ... (I speak ...).

You can list the languages you know and add qualifiers like ein bisschen (a little bit) for languages you're still learning.

So, you might say:

• Ich spreche Englisch und ein bisschen Deutsch. (I speak English and a little German.)

4. Putting It All Together

Now you have the building blocks to provide a more detailed introduction. Let's look at a complete example that combines these elements.

The image below also provides several examples of people introducing themselves, reinforcing the patterns you've learned today.

Your Turn to Practice

Now it's time for you to introduce yourself. Using the phrases we've covered, write a short paragraph in German in your notebook. Make sure to include:

1. Your name (Ich heiße... or Mein Name ist...)
2. Your age (Ich bin ... Jahre alt.)
3. Your country of origin (Ich komme aus...)
4. The languages you speak (Ich spreche...)

This is an excellent exercise to internalize these crucial structures.

Conclusion

Ausgezeichnet! You have successfully learned how to share key personal information in German. This is a significant milestone that moves you beyond isolated grammar rules into practical, communicative ability.

Let's recap the key phrases from today:

• To state your age: Ich bin [Zahl] Jahre alt.
• To state your origin: Ich komme aus [Land].
• To state your nationality: Ich bin [Nationalität, m/f].
• To state languages spoken: Ich spreche [Sprache 1], [Sprache 2] und ein bisschen Deutsch.

You have now concluded Module 3, having built a solid understanding of the nominative and accusative cases. You can describe things, own things, and negate statements. But what about giving things to someone, or telling something to someone? For that, we need a new tool.

In our next lesson, we will begin Module 4 by introducing the third of Germany's four core grammatical cases: the dative case. You'll learn its function as the case for the indirect object, which will open up a whole new level of expression.

Bis zum nächsten Mal!