What is his/her name? | Wie heißt er/sie? [German Learning - Female Voice]

Pronunciation Guide To pronounce this phrase using English phonetics (sounds you already know), you can say it like this: Wie heißt er? (What is his name?): Pronounced as "Vee highst air?" Wie heißt sie? (What is her name?): Pronounced as "Vee highst zee?" Here is a quick breakdown of the sounds: Wie sounds exactly like the English word "bee", but with a "V" sound at the start. heißt sounds like the English word "hi" with a "st" sound added to the very end. er sounds like the "air" we breathe. sie sounds exactly like the English letter "Z". --- History of the Phrase This phrase is not a single word, but a combination of three ancient Germanic words. Because English and German are historical "cousins" that both evolved from an ancient ancestor language called Proto-Germanic, these words actually share deep roots with English. 1. Wie (How) This word comes from the Proto-Germanic word "hwis", which was used to ask about the manner of something. Over many centuries, it evolved into "wie" in German. In English, it changed into the word "how". They look different today, but they started from the same linguistic root. 2. heißt (is called / named) This comes from the Old High German word "heizzan", which meant "to command", "to call", or "to name". English actually used to have this exact same word. In Old and Middle English, the word was "haitan" or "hote", meaning "to be named." You can even find it in Old English literature like Beowulf or in Shakespeare's plays as the archaic word "hight" (for example, "this knight was hight Gawain"). While English eventually dropped the word in favor of "named" or "called", German kept it as a standard, everyday verb. The unique letter ß in "heißt" is called an "Eszett" or "sharp S". It historically developed as a combination of a long "s" and a "z" written close together by medieval scribes. 3. er / sie (he / she) These basic pronouns have remained remarkably stable for thousands of years. "Er" comes from the Proto-Germanic "iz", which also evolved into the English word "he". "Sie" comes from the Proto-Germanic "si", which directly shares an ancestral link to the English word "she". When putting it all together, the German sentence literally asks "How is he/she called?", which is their standard, natural way of asking "What is his/her name?".