# I was born in America



## James Bates

[I was born in America.]
How would I say this sentence in Mandarin?


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## hx1997

我出生在美国。


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## James Bates

Thanks! Someone else told me 我生在美国 while a third person told me 我生于美国. Do they mean the same thing as your sentence? Is there a difference in formality?
Thanks again.


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## hx1997

Yes, they mean the same. The difference, if any, would be that 我生于美国 sounds sort of more formal than the other two. This is because the character 于 is commonly used in Classical Chinese in place of 在. We still use it in modern Chinese, however.


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## James Bates

谢谢您！


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## yuechu

Is it possible to say 我在美国出生了？


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## SuperXW

baosheng said:


> Is it possible to say 我在美国出生了？


It's grammatical, but sounds like you are narrating a story. 了 emphasizes the thing has happened.
我出生在美国/我生在美国/我生于美国 put the emphasize on the place you were born.

So,
A: Where were you born? 
B: 我出生在美国。
B: 我在美国出生了。


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## brofeelgood

(1) 我出生在美国
(2) 我在美国出生

Honestly, I can't perceive any difference between the two.

And to the question "Where were you born?", I'm more likely to answer "我是在美国出生的。".


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## SuperXW

brofeelgood said:


> (1) 我出生在美国
> (2) 我在美国出生
> Honestly, I can't perceive any difference between the two.


I remember we've discussed this issue before. It could be more complicated than it appeared to be.
Try change the following positions of 在美国.
我在美国出生，在加拿大长大。
我在美国挣钱。
我在美国挣了很多钱。
我在美国工作。
我在美国做外贸工作。
Interestingly, we can't always change the structure.



brofeelgood said:


> And to the question "Where were you born?", I'm more likely to answer "我是在美国出生的。".


The common way is to follow the structure of the question:
你在哪儿出生？
我在美国出生。

你是在哪出生的？
我是在美国出生的。

你的出生地是哪？
我的出生地是美国。

你生在哪里？
我生在美国。


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## brofeelgood

SuperXW said:


> 你在哪儿出生？
> 我在美国出生。
> 
> 你是在哪出生的？
> 我是在美国出生的。


Yes, that's how I framed the question in Mandarin when I read "Where were you born?". 

我在美国出生，但在加拿大长大。 (I'd definitely say this.)
我出生在美国，但在加拿大长大。 (Does this sound odd to you? I find this acceptable too.)


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## SuperXW

brofeelgood said:


> 我在美国出生，但在加拿大长大。 (I'd definitely say this.)
> 我出生在美国，但在加拿大长大。 (Does this sound odd to you? I find this acceptable too.)


Yeah it's acceptable, but we start to feel some nuance. I see you secretly added 但 in my sentence.


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## brofeelgood

Err... I did that unconsciously, of course.


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## Skatinginbc

brofeelgood said:


> (1) 我出生在美国 (2) 我在美国出生
> Honestly, I can't perceive any difference between the two.


Agree. I don't see any semantic difference between the two, either. They obviously have a difference in structure and therefore one may be better than the other in a particular linguistic environment (e.g., sentences involving parallelism like 我在美國出生，在加拿大長大), but that's not the point.  When the parallelism is destroyed ( e.g., adding 但), we again see no difference between the two in that particular example.


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## SuperXW

Skatinginbc said:


> Agree. I don't see any semantic difference between the two, either. They obviously have a difference in structure and therefore one may be better than the other in a particular linguistic environment (e.g., sentences involving parallelism like 我在美國出生，在加拿大長大), but that's not the point.  When the parallelism is destroyed ( e.g., adding 但), we again see no difference between the two in that particular example.


I agree. My point is (discussed in the previous thread) only certain verbs (including 生) can use [verb]+在+place, but all can use 在+place+[verb].


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