Why "откуда" is used instead of "где"

Question

When asking someone where they live, why is "Куда" used in the question instead of "Где"?

As in why "Откуда вы?" instead of, say, "Вы от где?"

Also, where else can you use "откуда" instead of "где"?

Answer 1

In English the word where has two meanings: place and direction.

• Where are you? - place
• Where are you going? - direction

In Russian there are two separate words for these meanings: где for place and куда for direction.

• Где вы?

• Куда вы идёте?

The reason that "Where are you from?" is translated as "Откуда вы?" is that there is an implied direction:

Where did you come from?

Откуда вы приехали?

Answer 2

Let me try :)

I would suggest to understand the difference this way:

• "Где" - just "where".
• "Куда" - could be interpreted closely to "where to". I assume that using this word you imply some place like destination.

Examples:

Куда ты идёшь? Where to are you going? (Where are you going to?)
Где ты идёшь? Where are you going at the moment (imagine a situation when you are talking on the phone and your friend asks you where are you)

Correct me if I am wrong.

Answer 3

Compared to English, Russian is much more pedantic about distinguishing direction and location, e.g., "from" might be из and от (or other possibilities) since word choice distinguishes between "from the inside" and "from the surface" while in English both are expressed with "from". Or just look at the Russian verbs of motion.

In the case of "where", there are three words, not two:

где = where, as in location (e.g., where am I?)

куда = to where, as in direction (e.g., where are you going = where are you going to = to where are you going?),

откуда = from where, as in direction (e.g., where are you coming from? or where are you from?)

Notice that in English, "where are you going to" is usually expressed as "where are you going", but in Russian the distinction between location and direction is not glossed over.

By the way, although откуда obviously arose historically as от+куда, but you shouldn't regard откуда as being some form of the word кудa. So the way you posed your question (not the heading, but the actual question) is awkward: when asking someone where they live, you don't use куда instead of где, but rather откуда instead of где.

Answer 4

"Откуда?" means "where from?" and "where?" means "где?".

For example

Где моя книга? - Where is my book?
Откуда вы? - Where are you from?

Answer 5

1. Где ты это узнал?
2. Откуда ты это узнал?

These questions seem to be identical, but the answers may be different.

1. • I have heard it at the market.
   • I have read it at the university.
2. • I heard it from John; he told me about it at the market.
   • I read it in the tutorial at the university library.

Answer 6

You can use the both:

Где вы живёте?

Откуда вы приехали?

Answer 7

I am quite confident Russian "откуда" may be translated into English as "why" in expressions as "откуда вы знаете", " Откуда вы решили, что..." which are widely used in a discussion to induce a sense of the incompetence of an opponent. Just to mention of that for it is not an answer corresponding to the question.