Meeting up with friends is a great thing that the French look forward to; they are amazingly social creatures, despite how they are portrayed in movies and such. Meeting new people is even better!
When a young person meets another of similar age, that is to say, a peer or classmate, often they will introduce themselves following the traditional greeting.
An exchange such as this is quite typical:
A young guy: Bonjour, je m’appelle Marc.
A young lady, in response: Et moi, je m’appelle Nathalie.
Literally, je m’appelle translates to I name myself, or I call myself…followed of course by your name. Basically, when stated, the person is saying, my name is… You may also ask a person for their name by the following statement:
Comment t’appelles-tu?
Which literally translates to How do you call yourself? Plain and simple, what’s your name?
In response to the above, a person may answer by stating the following:
Moi, je m’appelle Isabelle.
Translation: Me, my name is Isabelle.
When you query another person’s name, expect for a quick request to do the same. Once they state their name, they would be polite in asking you to do the same by stating:
Et toi? Or Et toi? Comment t’appelles-tu?
Translation: And you? What is your name.
To which you would respond:
Je m’appelle <insert your name here>.
In our next post, we will examine how one would go about querying other things such as age and origins. Till then.
Isabelle