Name

How to say your name

Nome

There are three possible ways how to introduce yourself. 

1.    The first one is the simplest one. As in English, we use verb “to be”- verb “SER”. Look at the example: 

I am Ana. = Eu sou a Ana.

As you can see, in European Portuguese it's necessary to put an article before a name. “A” for feminine gender, “O” for masculine:

He is Pedro. = Ele é o Pedro.

2.    The second possibility corresponds to English phrase “My name is”:

O meu nome é Inês.

Note, that in this case we don’t use the definite articles with names.

3.    The last way is using verb “CHAMAR-SE”.

Eu chamo-me Sofia.

This sentence can be translated literally as “I call myself Sofia”. In Romanian, there is very similar verb and this phrase would be: “mă cheamă Sofia.”

Don't use the definite article before name.

Now look how to conjugate the verb “CHAMAR-SE”:

What's your name?

Again, we will look at three possibilities how to ask someone a name.

1.    “Who are you?”

Quem és?

Quem é ela? = Who is she?

2.    “What’s your name?”

Qual é o teu nome?

Qual é o teu sobrenome? = What’s your last name?

To form a polite form, we must use a pronoun that corresponds to the third grammatical person:

                   Qual é o seu nome?

3.    Using verb “CHAMAR-SE”:

In questions, the word order is different. First, we write a pronoun and then the verb will follow:

         

Como te chamas? = Engl. What’s your name?

                                                    = Rom. Cum te cheamă?

                                                 

Polite form requires third grammatical person:

                  

                   Como se chama?   = Engl. What’s your name?- formal