Lesson 4 · pre-A1
Why English speakers ask *¿qué es tu nombre?*
"What is your name?" is such a fixed English phrase that speakers translate it word for word: qué (what), es (is), tu nombre (your name). Out comes ¿qué es tu nombre? It's understandable, but no one actually asks it that way.
Spanish asks ¿cómo te llamas? — literally "how do you call yourself?" Two things surprise English speakers here. First, the question word is cómo (how), not qué (what). Second, the verb is reflexive: llamarse means "to call oneself", so the little te and me are not optional decorations, they carry the meaning.
That's why "my name is Teo" is me llamo Teo — "I call myself Teo". Drop the me and llamo Teo is simply broken. For someone else, the reflexive shifts to the third person: se llama Kike, "he calls himself Kike", not él es Kike when you're giving a name.
- ¿Cómo te llamas? — How do you call yourself?
- Me llamo Teo, ¿y tú?
- ¿Quién es? — Se llama Kike.
Say it with me: ¿Cómo te llamas? Me llamo... Feel the te and the me doing the work. In Spanish you don't have a name, you call yourself one.
Phrases from this lesson
- me llamo Teo — ¿y tú? — my name is Teo — and you? me llamo is reflexive ('I call myself'); the me is obligatory — 'llamo Teo' alone is wrong.
- ¿cómo te llamas? — what's your name? Literally 'how do you call yourself?' — use cómo, not qué; do not render 'what is your name' as ¿qué es tu nombre?
- ¿quién es? — se llama Kike — who's that? — his name is Kike se llama = 'he/she calls himself/herself' — the same reflexive verb in the third person, not 'él es Kike' for giving a name.