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Mein Name


Nishant

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Hi, could someone help me with a problem I am stuck with? While introducing yourself in German, there are a number of ways you can do that. I encountered an exercise that I could not comprehend. To my eyes, they all seem correct.

The question was which of the following are correct ways to introduce yourself:

  • Mein name ist Beckmann
  • Mein name ist Karin
  • Mein name ist Karin Beckmann
  • Ich bin Karin
  • Ich bin Beckmann
  • Ich bin Frau Beckmann
  • Ich bin Karin Beckmann
  • Ich heiße Frau Beckmann
  • Ich heiße Beckmann
  • Ich heiße Karin.... and so forth.

How do I know the correct way and is there an explanation for the differences?

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It doesn't matter, they're all correct indeed.
The only differences are:

1. Mein name ist = my name is.
2. Ich bin = I am.
3. Ich heiße = I am called.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 months later...

I learned it as "Ich Bin" which might just because it seems more informal. Although formality is a major thing in German so I don't know if Mein Name would work better. Then again, I am going from an English perspective and I know that German is more formal in a cultural context. I really appreciate the way that familiarity is not imposed on people in German when I was working in a job where I had to wear a name tag and people would just call me by my first name. 

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On 9.1.2016 at 10:27 PM, Blaveloper said:

It doesn't matter, they're all correct indeed.
The only differences are:

1. Mein name ist = my name is.
2. Ich bin = I am.
3. Ich heiße = I am called.

exactly. 

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On 9.1.2016 at 9:26 PM, Nishant said:

Hi, could someone help me with a problem I am stuck with? While introducing yourself in German, there are a number of ways you can do that. I encountered an exercise that I could not comprehend. To my eyes, they all seem correct.

The question was which of the following are correct ways to introduce yourself:

  • Mein name ist Beckmann
  • Mein name ist Karin
  • Mein name ist Karin Beckmann
  • Ich bin Karin
  • Ich bin Beckmann
  • Ich bin Frau Beckmann
  • Ich bin Karin Beckmann
  • Ich heiße Frau Beckmann
  • Ich heiße Beckmann
  • Ich heiße Karin.... and so forth.

How do I know the correct way and is there an explanation for the differences?

Most of them are correct. However, there are two things I need to point out here. First of all, 'name' needs to be written with a capital N, as it is a noun. So it always needs to be 'Mein Name ist ....'. Moreover, you can't say 'Ich bin Beckmann'. Nobody would say it. All the others are possible and grammatically correct. 

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