How to say what is your name in french?

It would probably be a good time to introduce yourself, right? Well, keep reading! This article explains how to say My name is in French and other useful sayings to make a great first impression.

Allez, c’est parti !

The most common way to say “Hello, my name is” in French is “Bonjour, je m’appelle”. And while “I’m” is very common in English, it’s not in French. For example, “Je suis Charlotte” (I’m Charlotte) would be understood, but doesn’t sound natural.

If you’re not sure about the pronunciation, you’ll find a short lesson from Phoebe at the end of this article. Hopefully, you do a better job than Joey!

To ask somebody What is your name in French, you can use “Comment vous appelez-vous”, or “Comment tu t’appelles”. If you need a refresher on French pronouns, check out this article.

As a rule of thumb, if you’re meeting a person for the first time and you’re hesitating between “vous” and “tu”, go with “vous”, especially in France — except if you’re speaking to a child, or a young peer.

Now, let’s learn different ways to say My name is in French. What’s in a name, after all?

Did you manage to ask somebody’s name in French? Chapeau ! Now, time to respond and introduce yourself. You can also slip in a compliment!

Feminine and masculine in French can be very confusing for English speakers. But don’t despair. Here is a little help (from your friends).

If you’re using “vous”, you can absolutely use the expressions above to introduce yourself in a formal/professional setting. But here are a couple more!

Learning how to introduce yourself in French is definitely the very first skill that you’ll need in order to master that important first impression and to make new French friends. We've put together some real life examples to help you on your way. Let's go!

“Je m’appelle Claude.” Does it ring a bell? If it doesn’t, you might want to try watching Friends — and thank us later. If it does, you’ll understand why we couldn’t write an article about “Je m’appelle” without mentioning the worst French learner ever — no, not you — Joey Tribbiani! And if your French teacher is not as patient as Phoebe, you might prefer to learn French online.

If a French person you’re meeting for the first time leans forward and kisses you on both cheeks, — actually, it can be up to four times depending on the region — don’t freak out!

“La bise” is very common in French, even for strangers.

If you’re unsure, just let the other person take the lead, and see what he/she does… and on which sides he/she starts!. More on this sometimes awkward French habit here.

Since names are very different from one country to another, it’s also a good idea to learn the French alphabet, so you can spell yours.

And if you have a hard time remembering “Je m’appelle”, think about Joey… or Hélène, a soap opera actress and singer who was a hit in China with “Je m’appelle Hélène” — not even sorry for this.

As long as you don’t give people “des noms d’oiseaux”, you should be fine.

If you’d like to say “What is your name?” in French, you generally have two options. To pose the question formally, you’d say “Comment vous-appelez vous? Speaking informally, you can simply ask “Comment t’appelles-tu?”

The literal translation of the question “What’s your name?” in French is “How do you call yourself?” What sounds like an unnecessary double reference to you/yourself comes from the use of a reflexive verb. While these verbs likely sound a bit awkward, you probably use them in English all the time without noticing. An example would be, “I threw myself on the bed.” or “I washed myself.” And just as you use them without thinking in English, most students of French tend to adopt French reflexive verbs just as naturally.

Rosetta Stone’s Dynamic Immersion® methodology teaches you to speak the language, not just memorize the words. What makes it so effective is that we prepare you to use the new language in your everyday life. So it’s not just about the features, but what you’re able to do because of them. That way, you’ll be ready to handle any situation with ease and confidence.

When you first start learning French, you may be tempted to wade into memorizing long lists of vocabulary words. But this is not an effective way to learn the language. Instead, you should focus first on learning just a few of the most commonly used phrases and their pronunciation. After all, the goal of learning a new language is not vocabulary acquisition. Rather, to achieve a level of comfort and confidence needed to have conversations in French.

Most learners realize immediately that there are commonly used words and conversational phrases that make up the backbone of the language. Learning these common words and phrases will give you a solid foundation. In addition to greetings like “Bonjour” or “S’il vous plaît” it’s also smart to learn the words that native French speakers sprinkle throughout their sentences, such as quoi, où, qui, quand, pourquoi, and comment. These common words are very similar to the English words who, what, where, when, why, and how—and they will pop up often in everyday conversations.

As you probably know, the French language is infamous for its je ne sais quoi—which is an indefinable quality that makes the French accent sound somewhat mysterious. But what may seem to be an elusive aspect of the French language’s appeal is really just a nuance of pronunciation. The language can be challenging to learn, because it is much more nasal sounding than other languages. Practice will help you become comfortable with this distinct difference. And that’s why it’s important to learn French pronunciation as you learn common words and phrases.

The French alphabet has the same letters as the English alphabet, but some of the letter sounds are pronounced quite differently. One of the most familiar sounds in French is the pronunciation of the letter e. In French, e is pronounced “euh” and can be heard in many French conversations. That’s because it’s used in the same way English speakers use the sound “uh.” In French, e is used as a pause or as a connector to another thought.

You’ll be glad to know that the French language includes helpful accent marks to guide your pronunciation. There are five different French accent marks to learn: the cédille (Ç), the aigu (é), the circonflexe (â, ê, î, ô, û), the grave (à, è, ù), and the tréma (ë, ï, ü). These accent marks most often indicate that the pronunciation of the letter is irregular. That said, the circonflexe is used only in French writing and doesn’t affect the pronunciation of the words in which it appears.

Acquiring proper French pronunciation depends on getting immediate feedback and making corrections. Rosetta Stone helps you dial in your pronunciation with our patented TruAccent™ speech-recognition engine. It instantly compares your voice to native and non-native speakers—so you get real-time feedback for the most accurate pronunciation. It is a valuable tool in helping you learn to understand and speak in French.

After you are comfortable with the building blocks of French, you can move on to learning the longer phrases that make up the backbone of everyday conversations. Rosetta Stone’s brief and bite-sized, 10-minute lessons are built to help you do just that. The language lessons will guide you towards speaking French with comfort and confidence.

As always, make sure you download your episode cheat sheet so you can listen to the words and see how they are written at the same time!

Ready? On y va. Let's go.

So! To ask someone what their name is, here are the most common phrases:

If you need to be formal,  you can say:

A quick note, this question can also be used if you are addressing a group of people.

If you don't need to be formal, let’s say for example you’re talking to a child, you can say:

Bien joué. Great job. Now, let's talk about saying your name.

When you want to say your name in French, you can say:

You can also simply say:

Both of these phrases can be used in formal or informal situations.

If you want to be a little bit more casual you could say:

To ask somebody What is your name in French, you can use “Comment vous appelez-vous”, or “Comment tu t'appelles”.