# Have you been overseas before?



## yuechu

大家好！

I wanted to ask people the following question in Chinese "Have you been overseas before?" but wasn't sure which words to use. For example, would it be any of the following?
你出国了吗？你去过国外吗？你去过海外吗？(also a bit unsure about whether "了" is necessary)

Thanks!


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## Skatinginbc

yuechu said:


> 你出国了吗？


Have you gone abroad?


yuechu said:


> "Have you been overseas before?"...你去过国外吗？你去过海外吗？


你出过国吗？
你去过国外吗？  你去过海外吗？


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## yuechu

OK! Thanks for your help, Skatinginbc!


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## SimonTsai

I personally feel that '國外' is more natural than '海外', which is good, but more often used as an adjective ('海外華僑' is probably the commonest collocation).


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## yuechu

That's good to know! Thanks, SimonTsai!


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## Pueraria montana

Hello, yuechu.
If you want to express the meaning "Have you been oversea before?", I recommed you to use the sentence: "你出过国吗？”
And


yuechu said:


> 你去过国外吗？你去过海外吗？


is also Ok.


But in China, “你出国了吗？” is usually used to express your surprise or astonishment about a person who is supposed to be in the homeland, but you find him or her abroad.


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## yuechu

Thanks for letting me know about the difference, Pueraria montana!


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## corner1912

If you marvel at somebody's level of a foreign language, you can ask “你在海外/国外生活过吗？”


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## yuechu

Oh, so "住" or "生活" could be used as verbs (for "to live" in Chinese")? OK, thanks, Corner1912!


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## SuperXW

yuechu said:


> Oh, so "住" or "生活" could be used as verbs (for "to live" in Chinese")? OK, thanks, Corner1912!


Of course. 住 (reside) is primarily a verb. 生活 is often either a verb (live) or a noun (life).


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## corner1912

Yes, but they are not interchangeable sometimes. “你在海外住过吗？” is weird.


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## SimonTsai

yuechu said:


> That's good to know!


Actually, I am unsure of the usage of '海外'. Since Taiwan is an island, '海外' and '國外' are often interchangeable; they mean virtually the same. But how do people in the mainland use it? I would love to know.

Would you say that someone from Beijing that currently lives in Brussels is living overseas? I ask because Beijing and Brussels both are on the continent Eurasia, and '_overseas_' is defined as '_in or to a foreign country that is across the sea_'.


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## corner1912

大陆也是只把“国外”称作“海外”，属于本国的岛屿不算海外。而且欧亚大陆太大了，所以把除本国外的其他国家叫做作“海外”一般也没啥问题，不一定要overseas才可以


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## SimonTsai

Is it that both India and Russia are '海外'?


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## corner1912

“国外”更严谨，但是如果说“海外”大家也能明白是泛指国外，一般不会思考是否要把欧亚大陆排除在外

但是把外蒙古叫海外确实怪怪的，而同样不靠海，把捷克叫海外就没有那么奇怪。可能是因为大家对蒙古的位置更熟悉，而捷克是一个遥远的西方国家吧


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## Boyar

对于英国来说，任何国家都是过了海的。
abroad = overseas (海外)


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## SuperXW

"海外"是一个泛指，generic term，如果只讨论一两个国家（蒙古、俄罗斯），一般不会用到“海外”这个词。
“海外”出现的语境，通常是“海外贸易”“海外资源”等，地域包括蒙古、俄罗斯但不限于特定国家，含义等同于“国外”。


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## corner1912

SuperXW said:


> "海外"是一个泛指，generic term，如果只讨论一两个国家（蒙古、俄罗斯），一般不会用到“海外”这个词。
> “海外”出现的语境，通常是“海外贸易”“海外资源”等，地域包括蒙古、俄罗斯但不限于特定国家，含义等同于“国外”。



有道理


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## Skatinginbc

“海外” 是 “四海之外”。 四海之內皆兄弟，蒙古是四海之內的兄弟之邦，故在我心中它不算“海外”。(不提中華民國版圖是否還包含蒙古)


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