Introductions and Professions

Conversational Goals

• Ask Someone's Name

• Introduce Yourself and Others

• Recognize Common Latin American Spanish Names

• Respond to Introductions

• Say Someone's Profession

Grammar Goals

• Conjugate the Reflexive Verb Llamarse

• Learn About Gender and Number Agreement in Nouns

• Learn Possessive Adjectives

• Practice Creating Affirmative Sentences and Questions

• Recognize Attached Personal Pronoun Clitics

My name is Tom.

Me llamo Tom.

I call myself

me llamo

Her name is Maria.

Ella se llama María.

Culture Note

María is one of the most common names in Spanish. It is a Catholic name that makes reference to the Virgin Mary.  The use of biblical names is very common in Spanish speaking countries. For example, a common male name is Jesús which means Jesus.

His name is Carlos.

Él se llama Carlos.

they

ellos

they call themselves

ellos se llaman

Grammar Note

Did you say *ellos se llama?  This is almost correct.  However, similar to how verbs change their ending to agree with the subject of the sentence, they must also agree with the subject in number, that is, singular or plural.  This is why se llama changed to se llaman to create the plural form of llamarse

Their names are Carlos and María.

Se llaman Carlos y María.

Culture Note

Other popular male names in Spanish are: Pedro, Juan and José which also have biblical origins.  For females, Guadalupe, Claudia and Laura are among the most common names.

(I) am (for permanent states of being)

soy

I'm John.

Soy John.

I'm not Maria. My name is Juana.

No soy María. Me llamo Juana

Hi, my name is Tom and I'm from the United States.

Hola, me llamo Tom y soy de los Estados Unid

Their names are Carlos and María.

Se llaman Carlos y María.

Her name is Maria.

Ella se llama María.