Asking and saying names in French

Level A1

Asking and saying names in French

You meet someone for the first time in the morning and want to exchange names. You will greet them, say your name and choose a familiar or polite question. Learn these expressions as whole phrases; the full pronoun system can wait.

Start with a greeting

In this polite morning meeting, Bonjour ! means “Good morning!”; Merci. means “Thank you.” Listen to both familiar expressions and say them once. These are useful even if this is your first lesson: a greeting opens the contact, and a thank-you acknowledges help. Salut !, heard in the question below, is a casual “Hi!”.

Je m'appelle…: say your name

Je m'appelle Ana. means “My name is Ana.” Keep Je m'appelle and replace Ana with your name; Je means “I”, and m'appelle is the part that says what you are called. Unlike the English phrase “my name is”, this French formula does not contain a separate word for “name”.

Listen to Ana's and Leo's versions, then say yours. Keep Je in this formula. In m'appelle, me loses its e before appelle, leaving m' joined to the next word; the apostrophe does not mark a pause. Learn that spelling with the phrase, without learning a verb chart.

Je m'appelle …

Ask with tu or vous, then return the question

Comment tu t'appelles ? means “What's your name?” when you address one person as tu, as in a casual encounter where that form is welcome; the example first says Salut ! (“Hi!”). For a more polite first meeting, often with an adult you do not know, learn Comment vous vous appelez ? as one whole question: the two occurrences of vous belong in this formula, and here you are talking to one person.

English you covers both relationships, but in these French questions changing tu to vous also changes t'appelles to vous appelez; comment means “how”, though the natural English question uses “what”. In t'appelles, te becomes t' before appelles, just as me becomes m' in your answer; use the audio to hear the phrase as a continuous group.

After saying your name, Et vous ? (“And you?”, with et meaning “and”) invites the other person to give theirs and keeps the polite address. Recognition only: Enchanté ! means “Nice to meet you”; a woman writes Enchantée, with the same pronunciation, and neither spelling is required in this lesson's practice.

Two adults exchange names

Leo and Ana meet for the first time in the morning and use vous. Listen to each turn, then check who asks the full question and who returns it with Et vous ?. Ana says her name and asks the short question in two successive turns; Leo then gives his name. The answer Je m'appelle… works with either the tu question or the vous question.

Try the exchange, then check

Before playing the cards, try four steps: say your own name using Ana's model; ask a new classmate their name in a setting where you both use tu, starting with Salut !; ask an adult you address as vous; then give your name and return the question politely. Check the cards in that order and listen again, replacing Ana with your own name.

For the last step, join two expressions you already know: Je m'appelle… followed by Et vous ?. Your short toolkit is Je m'appelle… to answer, Comment tu t'appelles ? or Comment vous vous appelez ? to ask, and Et vous ? to ask back politely. You do not need age, work or nationality to complete this exchange.

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