L E A R N I T A L I A N S T E P B Y S T E P, D A Y B Y D A Y, P H R A S E B Y P H R A S E

Week 1 Day 4 Today’s Phrases

Lesson 004 come ti chiami?

You already know how to say what’s your name? (informal) your name. Today you’ll learn how recognise when you need to give your name, and how come si chiama? you ask other people for their names. what’s your name? (formal)

If “my name is” in Italian is mi as we’ve seen, chiamo means “I informal and a formal form. chiamo..., then it makes sense call...” and chiami means “you We’ll come across the words that the phrase for “what is call”. Note that there’s no for “you” itself in a future your name?” should appear word for “I” or “you” here: the lesson. For the time being, similar in formation. pronoun is actually contained you’ll want to know why it’s ti We’ve already seen that mi within the ending. You know chiami and si chiama in today’s chiamo literally means “I call who is doing the calling phrases. Just think of ti as the myself ”. If we take out the mi, because of the ending of the word for “yourself ” in the chiamo on its own means “I verb: if it’s chiamo, it’s “I...” informal form, and si means call”. Italian works like many and if it’s chiami, it’s “you...”. “yourself ” in a formal other languages in that it There are different words in situation. Both phrases of changes the ending of a word Italian for “you”. Like many course mean “what do you call to refer to different people so, languages, Italian uses an yourself ?”

Italian names Angela. For boys, the five most the town of their birth. In addition popular names are: Giuseppe, to their birthday they often The current five most popular Giovanni, Antonio, Mario and Luigi. celebrate their “name names in Italy for girls are: Maria, Italian children are often named day” (onomastico). Children often Anna, Giuseppina, Rosa and after saints, eg. the patron saint of receive gifts on their name day.

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