နာမည်ဘယ်လိုခေါ်လဲ။
namai bhalo hkaw le?
နာမည်ဘယ်လိုခေါ်လဲ။ (namai bhalo hkaw le?) is how you say "what is your name?" in Burmese.
A question used to ask someone for their name.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase literally translates to "name how call [question particle]", or "How is [your] name called?"
How does it change in a sentence?
You can use the form နာမည်ဘယ်လိုခေါ်သလဲ။ (namai bhalo hkaw tha le?) by adding the particle သ (tha) before the question particle လဲ (le). This makes the question slightly more formal or grammatically complete.
How do you pronounce it?
namai bhalo hkaw le?
When do people say it?
When responding to this question, a male speaker will typically say ကျွန်တော့်နာမည် … ပါ (kyan taw namai … par), while a female speaker will typically say ကျွန်မနာမည် … ပါ (kyan ma namai … par).
Did you know?
- Burmese names traditionally do not include a family name or surname, so when you ask နာမည်ဘယ်လိုခေါ်လဲ။, you will usually receive a single personal name.
- If you are asking the name of a monk, you cannot use the standard phrase နာမည်ဘယ်လိုခေါ်လဲ။ and must use a specific set of honorific verbs and nouns.
- In Burmese culture, people often use nicknames or even descriptions of their physical traits as names, so don't be shocked if someone answers with a word that seems like a physical descriptor.
Examples in context
- ဆောရီး၊ နာမည်ဘယ်လိုခေါ်လဲ။sorry, na me bal lo kaw lel?Sorry, what is your name?
Example conversation
A young man meets a woman at a coffee shop.
- ကျော်ကျော် Kyaw Kyawနေကောင်းလား၊ နာမည်ဘယ်လိုခေါ်လဲ။nay kaung lar, na me bal lo kaw lel?How are you, what is your name?
- နှင်းနှင်း Hnin Hninနေကောင်းပါတယ်။ နှင်းနှင်းလို့ခေါ်ပါတယ်။nay kaung par tal. hnin hnin lo kaw par tal.I am fine. My name is Hnin Hnin.
- ကျော်ကျော် Kyaw Kyawတွေ့ရတာ ဝမ်းသာပါတယ် နှင်းနှင်း။tway ya dar wan thar par tal hnin hnin.Nice to meet you, Hnin Hnin.
- နှင်းနှင်း Hnin Hninဝမ်းသာပါတယ် ကျော်ကျော်။wan thar par tal kyaw kyaw.Nice to meet you, Kyaw Kyaw.
