Porquoi “tu appelles, pas de t’appelles?

Question

Accepted Answer

Bonjour William and Chris !Chris, you are indeed mistaken here: appeler takes a direct object in French:Tu appelles quelqu'un.
As for your question William, your confusion comes from the difference between appeler [quelqu'un] (to call [someone]), and the reflexive s'appeler (to be called / literally:"to call oneself").
In the first case, you'll use tu appelles (you call)-> the subject pronoun tu never contracts into t' in written form (though you might have heard it in speech).
In the second case, you will use tu t'appelles (your name is)-> t' is the contraction of the reflexive pronoun te
I hope that's helpful!À bientôt !

Answer

Bonjour William,

On dit "tu appelles à quelqu'un" -- You are calling somebody. La phrase "je m'appelle Chris." veut dire que mon nom est Chris.

Appeler à quelqu'un. -- To call someone (on the phone).
Tu t'appelles Marie. -- Your name is Marie (literally: you call yourself Marie).

-- Chris.

Answer

Thanks, Aurélie!! I guess I drew a completely unwarranted parallel between "dire à quelqu'un" and "appeler". Goes to show that one can't ever take anything for granted when learning French :))

-- Chris.