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AmgedIsmail 09-13-2011 10:15 AM

What's your name?
 
Hello,
Is it correct to say "What's your name?"
In Japanese:

そなたなまえなにですか。

sonata no namae wa nani desu ka.

WingsToDiscovery 09-13-2011 10:30 AM

That looks like "What is thy name?" to me.

You can just say
お名前は何ですか?
(おなまえはなんですか?) - What is your name?

お名前は?
(おなまえは?) - Your name?

And there are probably others, but these two are common formal and informal.

AmgedIsmail 09-13-2011 10:45 AM

I just used sonata as a pronoun which means "you" and used no after it that it belongs to you
Just like watashi?

わたしなまえなんですか。
watashi no namae wa nan desu ka.

OK can I say nani which means what?
なまえなにですか。
namae wa nani desu ka.

I don't know why they use nan.

Look at this website, in the question they used "nan".
and in the vocabulary list on the next page they state "nani" as "what".
Vocabulary, Grammar - Lesson 2 - Language - Kids Web Japan - Web Japan

WingsToDiscovery 09-13-2011 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmgedIsmail (Post 879593)
I just used sonata as a pronoun which means "you" and used no after it that it belongs to you
Just like watashi?

わたしなまえなんですか。
watashi no namae wa nan desu ka.

OK can I say nani which means what?
なまえなにですか。
namae wa nani desu ka.

I don't know why they use nan.

Look at this website, in the question they used "nan".
and in the vocabulary list on the next page they state "nani" as "what".
Vocabulary, Grammar - Lesson 2 - Language - Kids Web Japan - Web Japan

First, sonata sounds really strange. So I just wouldn't use that, at least for what you're trying to say. In Japanese, there are words for "you," because sometimes there's just no way around it, but it's not common to use them, because it's considered too direct. For example, you could say "あなたのなまえはなんですか?" But あなた (you) is direct, so it is commonly omitted and instead it is more natural to simply say "おなまえはなんですか?"

わたしのなまえはなんですか? doesn't make sense because it's asking "What is my name?"

"Nani" and "nan" kind of conjugate depending on what you're talking about. The kanji for them is the same "何" but in this case the sentence should be おなまえはなんですか?But both "nan" and "nani" can mean "what?"

JohnBraden 09-13-2011 02:34 PM

僕の名前話ジョンです。
Boku no namae wa John desu....

GodzillaRadio 09-13-2011 02:39 PM

Sonata is an old way of saying 'you'. It's also fairly posh sounding. You'll mostly hear/ read it being said by sophisticated or high social status characters in books/movies etc based in the past.

WingsToDiscovery 09-13-2011 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnBraden (Post 879613)
僕の名前ジョンです。
Boku no namae wa John desu....

That's not right.

JohnBraden 09-13-2011 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery (Post 879615)
That's not right.

I've heard that said many times more than "watashi wa .... desu". What's the incorrect portion?

WingsToDiscovery 09-13-2011 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnBraden (Post 879616)
I've heard that said many times more than "watashi wa .... desu". What's the incorrect portion?

The kanji. Just leave it as "は" - "wa"

AmgedIsmail 09-13-2011 05:21 PM

So, do you mean that we should always use "nan" before the verb "desu" in the question?


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