"Are you Ivan Ivanovich?"
Translation:Вы Иван Иванович?
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Иван Иванович is a full name, so you have to use formal "you" too. On the other hand, Ваня is an informal name of Иван, so the question "Ты Ваня?" is correct and the question "Вы Ваня?" is wrong.
I'm not a native speaker, but I think ты would be correct speaking with a child, or for two schoolboys talking to each-other. That's not an unusual context.
Not to mention that if you are asking someone if their name is [insert name], chances are you don't know them and thus should address them formally.
When it comes to respect more is better than less.
I'm pretty sure there is million of situations when you can ask someone their name and surname without having to address them formally - either someone your age, younger, or in an informal situation. Thus singular you should also be accepted.
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In Russian language it's acceptable to you both 'Ты' and 'Вы' in this case. And the same for 'Вы Ваня?' - it's correct sentence. It's not so widely used, but nothing prevents you to use it.
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Disagreed. There may be a few occasions where you could use it this way, but it's wrong to teach this to foreigners without some veeery specific context. I would definitely consider "Ты Иван Иванович?" and "Вы Ваня?" a mistake (not a major one though) if it was used in speech.
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Yes, I'm sure I'm right. You misunderstood my reply, reread it. I was pointing out that the combinations formal "you" + informal name or informal "you" + formal name are wrong, not the other way round.
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Oh God, for some reason we can't really understand each other. x) So, in your first reply you said that using formal "you" with a full name is common and not wrong in German and Serbian. So it is in Russian and that's exactly what I said myself before, saying that combinations "Ты Ваня?" (informal) and "Вы Иван Иванович?" (formal) are both perfectly fine. Then you said that, alternatively, using informal "you" + formal name is correct in German and Serbian. I can't really speak for these languages (I don't know Serbian at all, and German only a bit), but! Using "Ты Иван Иванович?" and "Вы Ваня?" in Russian is wrong. Period.
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I believe that means "Is your name Ivan Ivanovich" while the sentence is "ARE YOU Ivan Ivanovich".
