Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Olá, como te chamas?

In European Portuguese, pronouns usually attach to the end of the verb with a hyphen. However, certain words act like magnets and pull the pronoun in front of the verb. Question words like como (how) are magnet words. Because of como, the pronoun te is pulled to the front, making it como te chamas? instead of como chamas-te?.

If como means 'how', why does the English translation use 'what'?

In English, we ask 'what is your name?', but in Portuguese, the phrase uses the reflexive verb chamar-se, which literally means 'to call oneself'. So, the Portuguese sentence como te chamas? actually translates word-for-word as 'how do you call yourself?'.

Is this sentence formal or informal?

This is the informal way to ask someone their name. We know this because it uses the pronoun te and the verb ending -as (chamas), both of which belong to the informal 'you' (tu). If you wanted to ask a stranger politely, you would use the formal version: como se chama?.

Why is the word for 'you' (tu) missing from the sentence?