Mandarin Chinese - HSK Level 1 - Ask a Person’s Name

In Mandarin Chinese, if you want to ask a person’s name, you could say: “你叫什么名字, nǐ jiào shén me míng zì?“ (What’s your name?”) Let’s break down the Chinese sentence “nǐ jiào shén me míng zì?“ “你, nǐ” means “you” “叫, jiào” means “to be called”. “名字, míng zì” means “Name” “什么, shén me” is a question word, meaning “What”. “什么, What” is placed before a noun, which is used to ask for specific information of the noun that a person wants to know.