Talking About Who You Are
If you get a response to your greeting and you want to initiate a conversation, introduce yourself using some of the following sentences. They will probably lead to an exchange of other information.
Exchanging Names
A good start is to just state your name without trying to translate it:
My name is... |
Mi nombre es... |
If you are addressing one person using informal address, you can ask:
What's your name? |
¿Cómo te llamas? |
Using formal address, you ask:
What's your name? |
¿Cómo se llama? |
If you addressing more than one person, the question is:
What are your names? |
¿Qué son sus nombres? |
The person, or persons, you greet will usually just state their name(s). The response is the same for an informal or formal question:
My name is María |
Me llamo María. |
Our names are José and María. |
Nuestros nombres son José y María. |
Our names are José and María. |
Nos llamamos José y María. |
Describing Where You Are From
If you want to tell the person(s) you are talking to where you are from, and you are in the city where you reside, you say:
I live in this city. |
Vivo en esta ciudad. |
Suppose you live in Jacksonville, Florida, for example. You would say:
I live in Jacksonville, Florida. |
Yo vivo en Jacksonville, Florida. |
If you are in another country and you want to say that you are from a certain state in, or from the United States, you can say:
I live in the state of Florida. |
Yo vivo en el estado de Florida. |
I live in the United States of America. |
Yo vivo en los Estados Unidos. |
If you are addressing one person, and you are interested in knowing where the person is from, you would ask the following based on the form of address. Using informal address, the question would be this:
Where are you from? |
¿De dónde eres? |
Here is the question, using the formal form of address:
Where are you from? |
¿De dónde es usted? |
If you are addressing more than one person, the question would be:
Where are you all from? |
¿De dónde son ustedes? |