Doesn't "Tu t'appelles Laura" mean 'You call yourself Laura' ?

Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
14/12/15
Bonjour Matt,
This is a very interesting (and often asked) question!
The fact is that even though the construction of the verb "s'appeler" is similar to the expression "to call oneself" in English, "Je m'appelle" can never mean "I call myself" in French, in the same way as "J'ai cinq ans" (on its own) never means "I have five years.".
If you wanted to say "I call myself Danny" (i.e. that's the name I give myself), in French you would use the following expression: Je me fais appeler Danny.
The reason we keep the two options in our question is specifically to address that transference error that is one of the most natural (therefore trickiest) to make between French and English.
I hope that's helpful.
A bientôt !
Joseph
Kwiziq community member
27/01/18

Éric
Kwiziq community member
9/08/18
I think it should be made clear that both you and Aurélie have valid points. It would be grammatically correct to say "I call myself..." and use your given name but I think the point she was making is that it would be unnatural; I personally can’t think of an instance where someone’s used that in natural conversation. If you were translating professionally, for example, you would only ever translate « Je m’appelle... » as "My name is..." and not "I call myself".
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Kwiziq community member
14 December 2015
3 replies
Doesn't "Tu t'appelles Laura" mean 'You call yourself Laura' ?
This question marked the answer 'You call yourself Laura' as incorrect. This is the literal translation. The option 'Your name is Laura' was also an option, but I saw 'You call yourself Laura' first and thus chose that option. This question needs to accept both or remove one or the other to avoid confusion. Thanks, Matt
This question relates to:
French lesson "Saying your name: Je m'appelle, Tu t'appelles, Vous vous appelez"