spanish translation

[rockyracoon]

Could someone help please, I need to know how to say "what is your brother called" in Spanish.

Many thanks for any responses.

[Sqad]

Cuál es el nombre de su hermano

[Buenchico]

Sqad's sentence asks "What is the name of your brother?", whereas many Spaniards would say "What does your brother call himself?" = "¿Como se llama su hermano?".

[supapapa]

Go to Google Translate

[MarkRae]

Under no circumstances go to Google Translate or any other online-translation "service" (sic). They are all utterly useless.

[Buenchico]

Interestingly, Supapapa, Google gives the translation as "¿Cuál es su hermano llamado", which is midqway between the two previous answers. (It translates as "What is your brother calling himself?").

If their are any native Spanish speakers around here, I'd be interested to know when they'd use 'como' and when they'd use 'cuál'. My suggestion, above could be read as "Why does your brother call yourself" but my school Spanish lessons, together with a former friendship with a Spaniard, has taught me that 'como' can mean 'what', as well as 'why'.

[MarkRae]

In fact, 'como' means 'how', not why. The Spanish word for 'why' is 'porqué.

However, Spanish (like some other Latin languages) use the equivalent of "How do you call yourself" in this context. Cf the French "Comment t-appeles-tu?"

"¿Cuál es su hermano llamado?" is a really strange and "un-Spanish" clumsy construction, and a superb example of why Google Translate (like all the others) should be avoided...

[boxtops]

As with so many languages, textbook translation doesn't reflect local usage and idioms.

[MarkRae]

The point is that what Google Translate suggests isn't even the textbook translation...