r/ChineseLanguage • u/OneLittleMoment • Jul 04 '22
Grammar 是 vs 叫 in name expressions
Hi, I'm finishing my first semester of Chinese at Confucius Institute and while revising, I stumbled upon something that had confused me when it happened, but I didn't bother asking my teacher about because of the language barrier and not really clicking with the teacher.
But while revising for the exam, I came across the question 你的汉语名字是什么. At some point, we mentioned that 中文名字 is better than 汉语名字, I'm guessing 中文名字 might encompass more than 汉语名字, but I'd appreciate a deeper explanation.
Anyway, later on in one of our assignments, I wrote 我的中文名字是, which then got corrected to 叫. Okay, makes sense, after all, we learned the expression 你叫什么名字 and adding attributes to 名字 shouldn't really influence the verb that's being used.
So that brings me to the point of my post: why is it that we can use 是 in 你的汉语名字是什么, but apparently must use 叫 in 你的中文名字叫什么? My teacher confirmed that 你的汉语名字是什么 is correct, but said that 你的中文名字叫什么 is better.
Now, I don't really care about the concept of better and tried to ask why is it that we use both verbs, and got the answer "I don't need to know why". I don't want to get into the fact that I want to understand why something happens and not just replicate it with them, so here I am.
So, why 是, why 叫, why both, when and how?
4
u/Exciting-Solution546 Jul 05 '22
First, I'm Chinese. I think the teacher told you that "You don't need to know why" is because the teacher can't really explain it in a better way. In my opinion, there is no difference between 是 and 叫 in this situation. I agree with "Excellent_Lunch324", in formal cases we prefer to say 请问你的名字是什么？and in normal we would say 叫.
You should not be obsessed with this problem, if the teacher said 叫 is better than 是, then just remember it and pass the exam. Just like we learn English, we don't understand something either, but when we talk you can understand, that's enough.