Countries, nationalities and languages

Say where you and other people are from, what nationality they are and which languages they speak.

Practise this lesson free (7 questions)

Nationalities are adjectives

No capital letter in Spanish. Nationalities ending in -és or -án lose the accent when you add an ending: inglés, inglesa, ingleses, inglesas; alemán, alemana. Estadounidense (American, from the USA) is the same for masculine and feminine.
MasculineFeminineEnglish
inglésinglesaEnglish
escocésescocesaScottish
galésgalesaWelsh
irlandésirlandesaIrish
españolespañolaSpanish
francésfrancesaFrench
alemánalemanaGerman
italianoitalianaItalian
mexicanomexicanaMexican

Where are you from?

¿De dónde eres? = Where are you from?
Soy de + country: Soy de Escocia. Or soy + nationality: Soy escocés / escocesa.
Plurals: Mis primos son españoles. Mis amigas son francesas.

Languages

Languages are masculine and have no capital letter. They look like the masculine nationality: el inglés, el español, el francés, el alemán, el italiano.
With hablar, you usually leave out el: Hablo inglés y un poco de español.
In Spain, Spanish is also called castellano, and other languages are spoken in some regions too, such as catalán, gallego and euskera (Basque).
Worked example

Translate: My father is Scottish and my mother is German.

  1. My father is Scottish: mi padre es escocés (masculine).
  2. and my mother is German: y mi madre es alemana (feminine, no accent).

Answer: Mi padre es escocés y mi madre es alemana.

Key idea

Soy de + country; soy + nationality. Nationalities agree like adjectives (inglés, inglesa, ingleses, inglesas) and have no capital letter. Languages are masculine: hablo inglés.

Common mistakes
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Extra practice

2 more questions

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  1. Complete: Mi padre es ___ (Scottish).

    1. escocesa
    2. escocés
    3. Escocés
    4. escoceses
    Show the answer

    Answer: escocés

    Masculine singular: escocés.

  2. What is the masculine plural of francés?

    1. francéses
    2. francés
    3. francesas
    4. franceses
    Show the answer

    Answer: franceses

    Adding -es moves the stress: franceses.

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Last updated 2 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.

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