"你好!你叫什么名字?"
Translation:Hello! What's your name?
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Just learning, like everyone else, but after an hour of searching the net I think I have it. (Don't shoot me if I"m wrong.)
From what I can tell the sentence breaks up like this:
你(you) 叫(called) 什么("what is" indicator) 名(name)字(birth)
It's like saying, "What's your "birth" name?"
名字 'name birth' seems just to be "name at birth", or "first name".
The question indicator appears to go after whatever information you're seeking. From what I read, Chinese does not reorder sentences to ask questions. ("Your name is ____" vs "What is your name?") Instead, you just put a "what question marker" (什么, shenme) after the verb about which you want to know. In this case, you're interested in how the name sounds, so you put the maker after 叫 "calling" (as in calling out, or saying). The "first name" 名字 part at the end describes what it is that is called out that you want to know (his first name.) You wouldn't put 什么 at the end because "first name" is not a verb. (If you said 名字什么 I'm guessing this would either be gramatically incorect or mean, "what is a first name"?)
你(you) 叫(called) 什么("what is" indicator)
would be like saying, "You're called...?" It doesn't actually use the phrase, "first name", but if you translated it, "what's your name" would be correct since "you're called?" might be hard to understand out of context. (e.g,, My name's Mike. And you're called?)
If you wanted to know how someone's name is written, I'm guessing you'd say
你(you) ?(write) 什么("what is" indicator) 名(name)字(birth)
or perhaps there is a "how" indicator that replaces the "what is" indicator
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In 名字, 名 means "given name," and 字 means "courtesy name" (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtesy_name ) - neither "birth" nor "word."
In the past, a Chinese's having a courtesy name in addition to the given name and family name wasn't uncommon. Nowadays, very few people have courtesy names, so when asked to give 名字, a person would give only 名.
Why do the interrogative signs (什么) come before the name signs (名字)? Is the interrogative signs coming before any other sign that refers to what the conversation is talking about true in all cases?
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When 字 is said by pressing the Speaker or the Turtle it sounds like American "zah" When you click on the 名字 tile, it sounds like "za" - the a like in about "ə" . Can you hear any difference? And is it just personal differences or regional. Or wrong. Chineese is picky about how the vowels sound and the "direction".
hello, everyone! I just have a side note, and that is, if you are meeting someone for the first time, in Chinese, you would not, in fact say nihao, but instead, ninghao, which is more formal. what's more, nihao is more saying hi than hello, which is posted as the translation. Your fellow learner, Evi.
“你叫什么?” Means that you are asking 'you are called what?' it is not necessarily asking the full name. It can be like 'I am called Mr. Li' or something else by which you are addressed but when you ask “你叫什么名字” its literally means that you are asking " you are called by what name " here you are specifically asking " he is called by what name". So it will be like "I am Called Sam". If there any mistakes tell me
"名"(Míng)= name "名字"(Míngzì)= courtesy or respectful name given when you are older(20 years) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtesy_name
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Very difficult language.... It seems that I will never master this language :( Please , help me...
There was a long pause before it said 'what is your name' so I went on to put 'hello' but because the pause was too long, I pressed check answer before hearing 'what is your name'. Please make the pause much shorter, as I easily could've answered this question if I had heard the second part much quicker.
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姓: family name
名: given name
字: courtesy name (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtesy_name)
名字 is used to mean "given name" or extended to mean just "name."
In the past, it wasn't uncommon for a Chinese to have a courtesy name in addition to the given name and family name. Nowadays, most people don't have courtesy names, so when asked to give 名字, they'd give only the given name.