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Vocabulary:

te = you/yourself

llamas = you call

TRANSCRIPT:

Hola, mi amigo. Hola, mi amiga. Welcome back. ¿Estás bien?

Are you fine? So today, we're going to learn how to ask somebody their name. And as you know, in English, we say, what's your name? But in Spanish, they don't quite ask it the same way.

They actually say something like, how do you call yourself? Yeah, it sounds a little bit funny to us, but in Spanish, it's totally normal. So the question is, ¿Cómo te llamas? Great, let's break it down.

We start with the word como. Como. Do you remember that from somewhere? As in como estas?

Como is how. Remember how word with a com over? How, como. Welcome to Yuh, just like we would pronounce a Y.

There are some regions where you may hear Juh a little bit, like you might hear the final G in garage, but most of the time it's Yuh. Yamas. Yamas is you call. So literally it means how, yourself, you call.

¿Cómo te llamas? The word llamas, l-l-a-m-a-s, which means you call, looks just like the word llamas, l-l-a-m-a-s in English, you know, the cute fluffy animals. So you can picture a llama wearing a little name tag that says Carlos. Hi, my name is Carlos.

So when you hear, ¿Cómo te llamas?, you can imagine you're talking to a llama asking, hey, what's your name, little buddy? And maybe the llama answers, Carlos. I know, it's a silly picture, but that's exactly why it sticks, or at least I hope it does. Also, llamas are pretty good listeners, so feel free to practice with them.

But right now, let's practice this together. Say this with me. ¿Cómo? Try it again.

Como te llamas. Great, now here's something kind of cool. We've seen this A-S ending before, as in llamas, the A-S at the end. Remember when we learned it in como estas, E-S-T-A-S, estas?

That's the friendly way to say, how are you? Well, in como te llamas, we've got the same thing happening, the A-S at the end of llamas is another friendly form. In Spanish, when you're talking to somebody you know, a friend, your neighbor, maybe even your llama, the verbs often end with A-S. That's because it's the casual, let's be friends way of talking.

So when you see, estás, you are, and llamas, you call, that A-S ending is kind of like a friendly handshake. How are you? How do you call yourself? So imagine asking a fluffy llama its name.

That AS ending is just a friendly, casual way to talk to someone. So today, would you please go on a llama naming mission and walk around and, you know, ask your dog, ¿Cómo te llamas? Ask your toaster, ¿Cómo te llamas? Ask your houseplants, your coffee mug.

You might want to imagine their answers. You know, llamas like fun names like Paco or Lulu. And please write ¿Cómo te llamas? in your Spanish journal.

So let me ask you, ¿Cómo te llamas? And go ahead and ask me. Sherry, that's my name, Sheri. You're doing so well.

Every day you're adding another little light bulb to your Spanish adventure. I hope you enjoyed this snacklet. I'll see you in the next lesson where we're going to learn how to answer this question. Adios, mi amigo.

Adios, mi amiga.