What’s your name? – Free Spanish lesson – How to ask people their names
In this free Spanish lesson we’re going to learn what’s your name in Spanish and how to introduce yourself.
If you want to hear all the examples in this lesson, you can find them in the free Lesson 2 of my Spanish for beginners course.
1. How to ask people their names, and how to answer the question
This is how you ask someone his or her name in Spanish:
and this is how you answer when people ask you your name:
2. Examples
Here are six examples where you can practice asking people their names and introducing yourself:
Hola, me llamo Margarita
Hello, my name is Margaret
Buenas tardes, me llamo Juan
Good afternoon, my name is John
Buenos días, me llamo José García
Good morning, my name is José García
Hola, me llamo Ana López
Hello, my name is Ana López
Hola, ¿cómo te llamas?
Hello, what’s your name?
Buenas tardes, ¿cómo te llamas?
Good afternoon, what’s your name?
3. The literal meaning of ‘¿cómo te llamas?’ and ‘me llamo …’
Here’s what ¿cómo te llamas? and me llamo … mean word for word:
* The word cómo usually means how.
* Te llamas literally means you call yourself.
* When you ask ¿cómo te llamas? what you’re saying is how do you call yourself?
* Likewise, me llamo literally means I call myself.
* When you say me llamo …, what you are saying, literally, is I call myself …
4. How to pronounce ‘¿cómo te llamas?’ and ‘me llamo …’
In the free Lesson 2 of my Spanish for beginners course you can hear all the sentences in this article said by native Spanish speakers, including myself.
When you listen to them, notice how the intonation rises at the end of the question, but not at the end of the answer.
5. Exercise
In the free Lesson 2 of my Spanish for beginners course you can do the interactive multimedia drill to practice what you’ve learned here.
Hola! I'm Maria Fernandez, an experienced native Spanish teacher, author of the Spanish courses at Spanish Bookworld & the popular Spanish Podcasts for Beginners on iTunes.
