Note
We tend to ask How is your name? rather than What is your name?Breakdown of Wie heisst du?
du
you
du is informal, so don't use it with strangers, except if they are children. You might use it if your friend brings his buddies along, but generally we tend to first offer someone the right to use du with us.
wie
how
You have seen 'wie' in the question about the name before. We tend to rather ask 'How is your name?' than 'What is your name?'
heissen
to be called
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“How do German cases work?”
German has four grammatical cases: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object), and genitive (possession). The case determines the form of articles and adjectives. For example, "the dog" is "der Hund" as a subject but "den Hund" as a direct object.
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