Venir de/d'/du/des = To come/be from with countries/states/regions and continents (French Prepositions)

Written by Qualified French Expert Aurélie Drouard HKH, Licence d'anglais LLCE

Last updated: 2024-07-01

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We know that countries, regions, states or counties have genders in French. See Continents/countries/counties/regions/states are masculine, feminine or plural in French (Gender).

Using "venir de/du/d'/des" with countries in French

Now look at these examples:

Je viens de France.I come from France.

D'où venez-vous ?
- Nous venons du Texas.Where do you come from?
- We come from Texas.

Elles viennent d'Andalousie.They come from Andalusia.

Martin vient du Pays de Galles.Martin comes from Wales.

Elle vient d'où ?
Elle vient des États-Unis.Where does she come from?
She comes from the United States.

Note that when saying the country, region or state someone comes from in French, you use the verb venir followed by:

- de (or d' in front of a vowel or mute h) when the country/region/state is feminine

- du (or d' in front of a vowel or mute h) when the country/region/state is masculine

- des when the country/region/state is plural

ATTENTION: note the cases of English counties ending in -shire which are masculine!

Elle vient du Lancashire.She comes from Lancashire.

Je viens du Yorkshire.I come from Yorkshire.

Case of Québec = province vs city

When you refer to the province of Le Québec, here it behaves like a country:

Mon petit-ami vient du Québec.My boyfriend comes from the Quebec province.

whereas the city of Québec, capital of the province of Québec, is like any other city:

Mickaël vient de Québec. Mickaël is from Quebec city.

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