Quid est nōmen tibi? Nōmen mihi est Mārcus.
What’s your name? My name is Marcus.
1.The question ‘Quid est nōmen tibi?’ literally means ‘What is the name you have?’ or ‘What is the name to you?’ And the answer ‘Nōmen mihi est ...’ literally means ‘The name to me is ...’ or ‘I have the name ...’; mihi est and tibi est are ways in Latin of expressing ‘I have’ and ‘you have’ but, for the moment, simply learn the phrases without concerning yourself about the grammar.
2. You may also see ‘Quod nōmen tibi est?’, but it means the same although the literal translation is a little different.
3. From the start of your study of Latin, you need to become accustomed to the order of words. Owing to the endings of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs, Latin word order is far more flexible than English. Therefore, you will see variations of the same phrase in terms of word order, for example:
Quid nōmen tibi est?, or Quid est tibi nōmen?
> Mihi nōmen est Quīntus, or Nōmen mihi Quīntus est, or Nōmen mihi est Quīntus.
4. As in any language, Latin can express the same idea in different ways and you will also come across: [i] 'Quid est nōmen tuum?' and [ii] 'Nōmen meum est ...' which translate exactly as [i] 'What is your name?' and [ii] 'My name is ...'
Remember not to try to acquire too much information at the same time; learn one of the expressions and recognise alternatives.
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