Introducing Yourself
Introducing Yourself
Introducing yourself in French leans heavily on one reflexive verb, s'appeler ('to call oneself'), used before you've learned reflexive verbs properly — worth memorizing as a fixed phrase for now. It also uses avoir ('to have'), not être ('to be'), for age, which trips up English speakers every time.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
je m'appelle — 'I call myself', not 'my name is'
Je m'appelle Sarah. (My name is Sarah. / I'm called Sarah.)
My name is Sarah.
s'appeler is a reflexive verb (full reflexive grammar comes later), but je m'appelle is so common it's worth learning now as a fixed chunk: literally 'I call myself', functionally 'my name is'. English states a name with the verb 'to be' (my name IS Sarah), with no reflexive idea involved at all — French instead frames it as an action you do to yourself, which is a genuinely different underlying logic even though the everyday meaning lines up perfectly.
j'ai ... ans — age uses 'to have', not 'to be'
J'ai vingt ans. (I am twenty years old.)
I am twenty years old.
English states age with 'to be' (I AM twenty), so it's tempting to reach for je suis when stating your age in French — but French always uses avoir here: j'ai vingt ans literally means 'I have twenty years'. This is one of the most common early mistakes English speakers make; train yourself to reach for j'ai, not je suis, whenever age comes up.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| je m'appelle... | zhuh mah-PEL | my name is... |
| j'ai ... ans | zhay ...ahn | I am ... years old |
| je suis de... | zhuh swee duh | I am from... |
| j'habite à... | zhah-beet ah | I live in... |
| ma nationalité | mah nah-see-oh-nah-lee-TAY | my nationality |
| mon métier | mohn may-tee-AY | my profession |
| enchanté(e) | ahn-shahn-TAY | nice to meet you |
| voici... | vwah-SEE | here is/this is... |
| je viens de... | zhuh vee-AHN duh | I come from... |