- Forum >
- Topic: Russian >
- "Hi, what's your name?"
"Hi, what's your name?"
Translation:Привет, как тебя зовут?
74 Comments
Hello, could I use "вас" instead "тебя" in this case? Like "привет, как вас зовут?" Thanks!
«Привет» is an informal greeting, and «вас» is a formal pronoun, so it’s not a good idea to use these two forms together (unless you’re using «вас» as a plural — it can be used in informal speech, but then the English would be "What're your names?").
Taking care to spell здравствуйте right, it sounds like it would be OK, although it's still rejected four years later...
i think its because it started with Привет and thats not a formal way to say , maybe u should use вас when it starts with здравствуйте , i dont know, just my opinion
Well, it depends. In some situations, e.g. on an informal party or in the university when talking to fellow students, it might be acceptable. At my work, we have a guidelines of using «ты» to everyone, I was explicitly told this when I started this work (although I keep using «Вы» to most people at work anyway ^^').
In general, I'd recomment to use Вы whenever you're unsure if ты is acceptable.
Also, if someone addresses you with ты, or uses привет or other informal words, you'd also use ты when answering them in most cases.
We are asking someone's name we don't know and we are using тебя ? Seems to me that whatever the greeting , I would be using как вас зовyт with someone I don't know .
yes, it does seem quite odd that you would be so informal with somebody whose name you don't even know...
There is absolutely no way that здравствуйте как вас зовут should be marked incorrect. again if you don't know someone would you not be inclined to default to the formal language, unless of course you were addressing a child? Get it right Duolingo!
«Как тебя зовут?» is not translated directly, the Russian sentence is closer to ‘How are you called?’.
I've kinda of had it with this one. Quit the level and restarted because I am trying to get my correct lesson streak! Stop marking me wrong for using вас. Doesn't matter if it's preceeded by "Привет" as you can say that to any fast food restaurant employee but still wouldn't use a form of "ты". Even with my co-workers, sure we'd say Привет, but we're not friends so don't use a form of ты. How are you already so friendly with the person that you say привет, and ты, but then don't know their name?? Or should I assume I am asking only children this kind of question?
How can you possibly use the familiar as opposed to formal if you don't even know a person's name?
It’s not rude, just not formal. Maybe you can compare it a little to calling somebody “sir/ma'am” in American English. You’ll often do so when talking to adults whom they don’t know or who are your superior (your boss, the president, a customer…), but you normally wouldn’t call a kid “sir/ma'am”, even if you’re talking to them politely.
1042
What greeting did you use? The only logic I can think of is that maybe you used an informal greeting with a formal question
- 921
Hey, how should I know/suppose who is the person whom I am asking??? How should I know if I can use the "ты" form or the polite "вы" form. In English it is the same "you"!!!
Why on earth would you use "Teба" and not "Bac" here? Are you going to ask someone you know well ("Tbl!) what their name is?????????!!!!!!!!!!! Not logivcal, Captain Kirk.
Sounds correct also "здравствуй". You should to send report about it. Thank you!
Is it idiomatic to put тебя in front of the verb here? Grammatically как зовут тебя should have been equally correct, shouldn't it?
«Как зовут тебя» marks «тебя» as the most important information in the sentence. You could use it if you're asking several people's name:
— Как тебя зовут? 'What's your name?'
— Иван. 'Ivan.'
(To a different person:)
— А как зовут тебя? 'And what's your name?'
Here, 'naming' is established context, previous sentences were about how people are called, so you give emphasis to «тебя» because it's the part of the question that is different from the previous question (even though the previous sentence also had «тебя» as an object, it referred to a different person so we emphasise «тебя» to show it's the new piece of information).
But in most cases «Как тебя зовут?» is the only word order that sounds natural.
Yes, «у тебя» is ungrammatical here.
«У тебя» is ‘at your possession/at your place’, and «тебя» is ‘you’ in the accusative case, used for direct objects (literally the Russian sentence means ‘how do [they] call you?’).
Как у тебя зовут? Would this be correct? A friend taught me to say it like this, but Duolingo does not accept it with the у.
That literally means "How by you do they call?" Тебя is the direct object of the verb зовут whereas adding the у would make it the object of the preposition and render the sentence ungrammatical.
This is nonsense. If you do not know a person's name, how can you use the familiar rather than the polite?
Do you mean you typed “bac” in Latin? If so: вас is pronounced “vas”, not “bac”.
I said "Привет, что тебя зовут?"
But it got marked wrong--is that actually wrong?
i was wrong at "что" too.. some people said that it isn't directly translated to "what" and more close to "how are you called?" so they use "как"
Why not say привет как ты зовут? This is marked as incorrect; however oh, my Russian friends say this all the time. So, why is it wrong?
Using "ты" is definitely wrong here. The literal translation of "Как тебя зовут?" is "How/What do they call you?". They/они is the subject here (even though it's omitted in Russian). "You" is the object here so it's used in accusative case - "тебя".
Of course we did and many still use a bible version with the required words thee , thy , and thine .
Тебя is the accusative (and genitive) of ты, and вас, similarly, is the accusative/genitive of вы. As randypg says in response to Franoise above, ты corresponds to "thou" in English of 500 to 1000 years ago, and вы is used basically the same as the way "you" was used in English at that time. In Modern English "you" is the only second-person pronoun, so Russian makes a distinction we no longer make in Modern English, but thou (or ты) replaced "you" when it referred to someone familiar or in an informal relationship with the speaker, while in older English and in Russian, "you" or вы refers to someone not so well known, or senior, or in a more formal relationship with the speaker. This distinction still survives in most Indo-European languages (e.g. tu vs. usted in Spanish; du vs. ihr in German), so English is a bit unusual this way!
BTW, the fact that вы also serves as the ONLY way to say "you" as a plural in Russian is mirrored in old modern English and Middle English, where "thou" was strictly singular, transforming into "you" for plural, no matter how familiar. Even this detail seems to be the same in the Romance languages and German and, I'm guessing, a lot of the rest of the Indo-European languages.
Small correction about German: Ihr used to be the formal version of “you” in the past (and you still see it a lot in stories with a medieval/fantasy-like setting) but in Modern German we use Sie instead (coopting the third person plural “they” rather than the second person).
Thanks! I confess I relied on a confusing Wiktionary chart for German, which I don't speak... BTW, does "sie" also serve as a plural like "vous" in French? Come to think of it, the modern usted in Spanish is only singluar, although some areas still use "vosotros," which fits the widespread Indo-European pattern, I guess.
No worries, such things can happen, especially since it doesn’t really matter for your argument ;)
- 439
If you have to ask someone's name, seems that you don't know that person. Therefore you're better off using the formal. Instead of привет как тебя зовут, say здравствуйте как вас зовут. The only exception is if you're speaking to a kid.
Why would you ask for someone's name informally?? If you don't know them shouldn't you be more respectful than saying "hi"?
- 1042
It depends on the situation. If you're in an informal context, for example at school or at a party, you would use the informal register. I guess you could also ask informally if you're asking someone younger than yourself
- 177
Too idiomatic for a basic student new to the language - как вас зовут is a stock phrase. Do not offer вас as an option if trying to elicit Привет, как тебя зовут the length of this thread is testament to how confusing it is. Suggest altering it for an incorrect grammatical form of "you" or just substitute for an entirely different word
Kinda annoying that we're supposed to know it should be formal just based on hi when english isnt that strict about it and this isnt an english class
The fact that привет is informal is in the Tips for the Phrases 1 skill (I assume that’s the one containing this task?). Besides though, learning a new skill (including a language) is all about trying things out, making mistakes and learning from them. Duolingo particularly embraces that philosophy because the Tips (even where they are present at all) are not compulsory to read before the lesson – although I would advise to do so, if only to help de-clutter the sentence discussions a bit. If you are graded wrong and you don’t know why, that’s what the sentence discussions are for. For older courses it’s likely that somebody already asked your question, and if they didn’t, feel free to ask yourself. Besides, there’s always a chance that your answer wasn’t actually wrong at all but somebody just forgot to add it to the list of accepted answers.
In any case, the goal is not to get everything right first time, the goal is to learn from the mistakes you do make.
- 317
I also do not understand why "Здраствуйте, как тебя зовут?" is not accepted. Yes, "Hi" is informal but "здраствуйте" instead of "привет" sounds like a correct option that would be widely understood.
Здравствуйте is either second person plural or first person singular formal. It can't be paired with ты/тебя. Здравствуй or здрасте could, but здравствуйте always has to go with вы/вас.
