"Как зовут вашу маму?"
Translation:What is your mother's name?
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Actually, «Вас» in «Как Вас зовут» is Accusative, not Genitive. But «Вас» is the same in Accusative and in Genitive (unlike «мамы»/«маму»).
It is.
Literally it's "How do [they] call your mom?".
By not using a pronoun, and using a 3rd person plural verb form, you create an indefinite-personal sentence. Such sentences are used when the person doing the action is unknown and unimportant, and are often translated into English with the passive, hence "How is your mom called?" or, more idiomatically, "What is your mom's name?"
is "how do you call your mom?" not correct even though that's a direct translation?
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That would rather be "Как ты зовёшь свою маму?" or "Как вы зовёте свою маму?" My mom's name is Nadezhda, but I don't call her that, for sure :-)
The direct translation is "How do (they) call your mom?" But the person asking this question just wants to know her name, so it's better to use the most common English way to ask that.
I was in Russia several years back and asked someone this very question. However I didn't have a grasp of word order and put зовут at the end of the sentence, as in, "How is your mom called?" Как тебя мама зовут? (Yes, I also said "your mom" in the nominative). The person understood but I'm wondering now how badly I butchered the sentence - ?
Lol!!! I thought at first the translation was "What is your name, Mother?" I realize the mistake now :)
In English, you would need to say "What's your mum called?" if you want to ask her name in that style. "How's she called"... is an adverbial expression, meaning with what means is she called. For example,"How do you call your mum in for lunch? Do you shout her name or do you sound the dinner gong?"
"What is the name of your mum" is wrong. I feel like it should be accepted. I reported it but tell me if I'm wrong lol
What would be the singular/non formal (Ты) equivalent of this sentence? I'm a bit lost when it comes to different pronouns in different cases
No. It is not idiomatic and I would never say that in English. You could say instead "What's your mum called" or "What's your mum's name?"
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Is 'How do they call your mom' correct? I believe that is the literal translation of this word order...
@Ealantair - Forgive me, but I can't reply directly from my phone. I'm not a native speaker, but from what I know, the 《ты》form of this sentence would be, 《Как зовут твою маму》.
Is зовут in infinitive form? Or is it conjugated for third person plural? How would my sentence be if I wanted to say "I call you Dima"?
Infinitive звать. Я зову Ты зовёшь Он/она зовёт Мы зовём Вы зовёте Они зовут
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It's in the accusative case, because her actual name would be in the nominative case.
Они зовут вашу маму Ольга Ивановна.
If we turn the question around into a statement. (and add in the "unknown they" for clarity).
