French language Q&A Forum

Hello!

Just a question regarding the usage of venir vs. être when saying where one is from: 

This lesson notes " To say which city you are from in French, you will use the following expression: Je viens de + [city]". One example given is "Je viens de Londres / I am from London". (And no alternative to "venir de" is mentioned in the lesson).  

However, a related lesson (À = To/in and De = From/of with cities in French (French Prepositions of Location)) gives an example using "être" to say where one is from: Je suis de La Rochelle / I'm from La Rochelle.

It seems there is a subtle difference in meaning (I am from vs. I come from), however in both of the above cases the translation given is "I am from". 

Could someone clarify if venir and être are interchangeable in this context, or if there are specific uses for each? 

Hi, with s'en aller I get the meaning of an action of going away or just gone away, so quite different from the passé composé but,whereas the passé composé is very structured and always uses the same past participle for the verb the s'en aller expression seems to vary eg je m'en vais,tu t'en vas, giving the idea of a present tense action or an imperfect,IE I/you are going away/have just gone away BUT nous nous sommes est allé  and presumably vous vous étes est allé use the past participle of aller. So ,the question is,does this alter the meaning in any way and is it just a grammatical irregularity which has to be learned.?