One English word, 2 or more spanish?

Hola! Just started Rocket Spanish in the last 2 weeks and loving it. Working way through slowly but surely and with fun! One question I have is why in many cases would there be more than one Spanish word for one English word. I'll use one example with the word 'name'. In the audio we say...Me llamo Michael but then in the dictionary nombre is defined as the word for 'name' and llamo is 'call'. Then again, in the conversation course the 2 alternatives are give, Me llamo or Me nombre. I'm just curious as to whether there is any history to this 1-Many type relationship or is it just the way the English translate, and whether the audio course chooses the most popular phrase. Also a very quick one, what is the Spanish translation for Michael? :D Thanks.

[quo]*Quote from * Michael Hola! Just started Rocket Spanish in the last 2 weeks and loving it. Working way through slowly but surely and with fun! One question I have is why in many cases would there be more than one Spanish word for one English word. I'll use one example with the word 'name'. In the audio we say...Me llamo Michael but then in the dictionary nombre is defined as the word for 'name' and llamo is 'call'. Then again, in the conversation course the 2 alternatives are give, Me llamo or Me nombre. I'm just curious as to whether there is any history to this 1-Many type relationship or is it just the way the English translate, and whether the audio course chooses the most popular phrase. Also a very quick one, what is the Spanish translation for Michael? :D Thanks.[/quo] First of all, you need to try to refrain from thinking in english in spanish (I hope that makes sense). It comes gradually. "Mi nombre" is "my name." "Me" is a reflexive pronoun in this case - meaning it refers back to "myself." So, "me llamo" literally means "I call myself." "Me llamo Miguel" literally means rougly"I call myself Michael" "Cómo te llamas" literally means (roughly) "how do you call yourself" or how are you called. This, or the more formal form "cómo se llama usted," is the most common way to ask someone what their name is in Spanish. It's just that spanish and english are different. By the way, my name is also Michael, and as indicated above, the spanish name for Michael is Miguel. I am almost 50 years old and have been called Miguel at times since I was around 8 years old and still am at times, particularly by Mexicans I know. There is another way to ask for someone's name in spanish. In the informal form it would be - "cual es tu nombre?" In the formal - "Cual es su nombre?" And you could say "Mi nombre es Miguel." Notice that "my" is "mi" not "me." I hope this helps.

Hi Michael and thanks. You make perfect sense and I have to stop before I get too far into trying to correlate every English word to a Spanish word and just think in the Spanish form. Regards, Miguel.

litlmike. Quite right, friend. I used to try literal translations instead of 'learning' Spanish and it didn't always make sense. It caused me loads of problems. It's just the way we are taught our own language. Spanish is a lovely language. Speak it like the Spanish not the Anglo/Spanish. it's easier. :?