Learn Spanish (Spain): ¿Cómo te llamas?

In English we say 'What is your name?', but in Spanish, the phrase literally translates to 'How do you call yourself?'. Because of this, you use Cómo, which means 'how'.

What is the word te doing in this sentence?

Te means 'yourself' here. The verb llamas means 'you call' (from the verb llamar, to call). Put together, te llamas literally means 'you call yourself'.

Why is there an upside-down question mark (¿) at the beginning?

Written Spanish requires an opening inverted question mark (¿) at the start of any question, as well as the standard one (?) at the end. This is a handy visual cue that tells you to read the sentence as a question right from the very first word!

How do you pronounce the ll in llamas?

In Spanish, the double L (ll) makes a completely different sound than a single L. In Spain, it is usually pronounced like the English 'y' in 'yellow'. So, llamas sounds a lot like 'yah-mahs'.