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- "你好！你叫什么名字？"
"你好！你叫什么名字？"
Translation:Hello! What's your name?
130 Comments
Both 你 叫 什 么？ and 你 叫 什 么 名 字？can be used to ask "What's your name?"
Ever further one may add 请问 to be more polite. 请问你叫什么名字
Can be to say: What's your first name? Because o "Ming zí" it is first name in the end.
First off, why did people down vote this? Secondly, 姓 is last name. Thirdly, you dont need to put 的。
As far as I know... "名字" (ming zi) translates to "name" in English, and adding at the end just specifies that you are asking for that person's name. You could say "你好！你叫什么名字？" (Hello! You are called what name?) or "你好！你叫什么？" (Hello! You are called what?)
download google keyboard or add chinese to your keyboard .you can switch to your own language with pressing space bar .
You and your replyes look understanding so better than I. Have you learn it all here in Duo lingo?
The only reason I'm learning Chinese is that I will translate Chinese gamers to my dad, he works in the gaming industry.
Chinese is a useful language and the culture is super rich! You should definitely think about utilizing a knowledge of the language for something like a trip to China
It would be good but a lot of chinese people don't use pinyin. We as Americans tend to use pinyin more than the character which is what my teacher explained to me. So it's better that we don't. Use flash cards! They're really helpful
flash cards? I am new here, could you give me some more details? it is quite hard to learn for me and I am at the start lol
Like cards that have the character on one side and the pinyin and/or English on the other! They're a great tool for studying
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
That was really eloquent and helpful! I think I understand a lot more, thank you! :D
Great job! However, from what i know, "字" just means "word" and both "名" and "名字" can mean name.
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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.
Everything is said too quickly. At least give an option for it to be read slowly!
Is there a rule for the work order with the question marker 什么? I thought that it was supposed to be at the end of a sentence when it was used, but on Duolingo, it seems to switch from before 名字 to after without any pattern?
I don't find it helpful to be asked to translate a word that Duolingo has not explained to me. I'm nearly guessing here. Would be good to get a translation of each character before trying to make a sentence
This sentence is a bit of a leap. There are words here I haven't learned. Why is it asking me?
See, when I did (你叫什么名字) by itself, it accepted "What name are you called?". But with the (你好!) it won't accept "Hello! What name are you called?"
How is "what is your name" incorrect here but "what's your name?" is correct? Makes no sense.
I'm a bit confused on pronunciation. In the phrase "我叫什么名字" the "字" at the end is pronounced like "feh" by the Duolingo speaker But when that character is alone, by itself, it is pronounced like "suh". I'm confused on which is the right pronunciation in that phrase-- please help!
It's a short 'zuh' sound. you can make it by saying buds like 'buDZah' and then just go to the z sound
It sounds like "feh" but its because hes saying "suh" it only sounds like "feh" because hes saying it a bit faster and in a sentence so it kinda blends in to sound like "feh". Im guessing the accent has partly to do with ot as well
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?
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".
There are two characters here that mean "what" according to duolingo? 什么 How come in chinese they use 2 different characters that have the same meaning in this sentence, and they put them right after the other?
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'什么' is one word. Shen means what, me is a non-independent partical character that means nothing on it's own. Basically ifs phonetic and always follows certain characters
So for example if i said " what i i want to do is leave" i wouldnt use "mè" because its not a question. But if i as "whats your name?" Then i would add the "mé". Is that correct?
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
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Wtf i passed the speaking parts in the first levels but now even the 好 shows up as incorrect
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.
Whats the tonal difference in "ming" as in "zhang ming" and "ming" as in name. If there is. Thanksa ton!
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I typed "你好，你叫什么明字" and was marked incorrect. I've started using a pinyin keyboard because it seems like better practice than the word bank, but it seems the lessons are very unforgiving about punctuation when typing it in by hand!
Voice test totally doesn't work. I can say tsching tsching tschang tscha ting tong and und say it's correct.
I am having a great time here, getting everything right in the first attempt. I am really enjoying people getting confused and others confusing them by adding more confusing info.
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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.
I think that it would be more natural/common to say a sentence like "你的名字是什么?" / nǐ de míngzi shì shénme ("What is your name?").
Im guessing that wouldnt work since it would be " your what first name" youd be leaving out the "called" part.
Damn, you need PERFECT spelling with duolingo. I got incorrect because i said "you name"
How come my microphone doesn't pickup my voive? It only picks up the first word. Any idea why??? Thanks
Since i learn at a slow pace right when i said Nî Hào it said i was correct? But i am still confused on the end and it didn't say i was wrong?
The what and what's thing here just seems a dirty trick when it mean 'you good, you call what name' At least that is what i think
I think the person who says the sentence should be a bit faster beacuse if someone already knows it they might get it wrong from going to fast
I think it is fair(in a way), they have no way of knowing if it was on purpose or by accident and are just checking for a certain translation.
Why do we need to add ming zi ecery time? No one asks whats your firet and surname. Its not grammatically correct!
It is grammatically correct.
你叫什么名字？ 你叫甚麽名字？ ni3 jiao4 shen2 me ming2 zi4 FORMAL TRANSLATION: What is your name? LITERAL TRANSLATION: You called what name? "You" 【你】is the subject, "called" 【叫】is the verb, and the question word "what name" 【什么名字/甚麽名字】is put on the end of the sentence, in accordance with the Chinese word order "SUBJECT + WHEN + WHERE + HOW + VERB", so ming2 zi4 is added after shen2 me. If you want to understand this lesson further, I recommend you look at Cheng Yangyang's Yoyo Chinese Grammar Lessons on Youtube. For this lesson, this is the video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLv8x7UXrvg&list=PLSfmcHo60bTxQNUUhZBHf3hkaEsNqfi_l&index=13
Im struggling! I asked what appeared to be 'what bis your name?' But it wanted something like 'what is yur name what what name....' I dont get how to bdo it or what the repetitiona are for. Anyone, please?
Is it correct to not allow hello, who are you? As an answerr. What's your opinion?
That is a rather rude and confrontational way of getting someone's name. It usually implies that your presence is at least unexpected if not downright out of place.
