Breakdown of ¿Cómo te llamas?
cómo
how
te
to you / yourself (reflexive) / you (direct object)
llamarse
to be called
Questions & Answers about ¿Cómo te llamas?
Why does this use Cómo (how) instead of Qué (what)?
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!
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