One of the first things you learn when you start learning French is how to introduce yourself, and especially how to say “My name is …” And while we have a lot of ways to introduce yourself in French, today we are going to focus on only two. Actually, just one because the other one is not the best way to say it.
Let’s start with the good way to introduce yourself.
In French we say:
Je m’appelle – My name is
This is confusing for French learners because the literal translation of “Je m’appelle” is “I am called”.
It comes form the reflexive verb S’appeler (which is also an irregular verb, but we will come back on that later.
If we look at the conjugation of the verb in Present tense we have:
Je m’appelle I am called
Tu t’appelles You are called
Il s’appelle He is called
Elle s’appelle She is called
Nous nous appelons We are called
Vous vous appelez You are called
Ils s’appellent They are called
Elles s’appellent They are called
This one is the literal translation of My name is, and while it’s not grammatically incorrect, it’s better to use “Je m’appelle“.
Je m’appelle Dylane, et toi comment tu t’appelles ?
Watch the video to make sure to get the pronunciation right:
