从哪儿(cóng nǎ ér) - where from? in Mandarin

从哪儿 (cóng nǎr) asks where something starts from, joining 从 (cóng), the preposition "from, since", with 哪儿 (nǎr), the spoken-register "where". It is the everyday way to ask about a point of origin - a person's hometown, a journey's start, a piece of news.

你从哪儿来 (nǐ cóng nǎr lái) is the classic opening line of small talk, "where are you from?", and the pattern extends to anything with a starting point: 从哪儿知道 (cóng nǎr zhīdào), "where did you find out", 从哪儿出发 (cóng nǎr chūfā), "where does it set off from".

Northern Mandarin speakers say 哪儿 (nǎr) with the retroflex r-ending; the more neutral, textbook equivalent is 哪里 (nǎlǐ), giving 从哪里 (cóng nǎlǐ) with exactly the same meaning. Both are correct, and a learner will hear either depending on the speaker's region.