Dime

[poli]

I know it means tell me tell me, but is it commonly used to mean call me as in,
mi nombre es Francisco, pero dime Pepe. I would use llámame instead. Is that OK?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

You can say "llámame", and it will be understood in context, but the usual is "dime".
We normally use the verb "llamar(se)" when we talk about our official name.

If I say "me llamo María, pero me dicen Mari", I don't call myself Mari, but it's rather the name I was given, so the verb "llamar" for "Mari" sounds weird because it's a different word than my actual name. :)

Of course you can say something like "a mi hermano siempre lo hemos llamado Pelón, en vez de su nombre", but it's still a bit artificial. We would simply say "a mi hermano siempre le hemos dicho Pelón, en vez de su nombre".
- A mi sobrina le dicen Marce, pero se llama Elsa. (True story, she looked a lot like her grandmother, whose name was Marcela.) :D
- A mi tía le decimos Magüicha, porque se llama María Luisa. (The nickname for "Luis" is "Güicho". Many Luisas are called Güichas.)

And the exception that may prove both verbs may be interchangeable:
- Oye, yo nunca te he dicho por tu nombre, porque no me lo sé. ¿Cómo te llamas? -> I guess here we just avoided using the same verb ("llamar") twice. ;)

[poli]

That's very helpful. I can't believe I didn't know this detail earlier.

THANK YOU

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Glad to help! :D

[pinosilano]

- A mi tía le decimos Magüicha, porque se llama María Luisa. (The nickname for "Luis" is "Güicho". Many Luisas are called Güichas.)


A los Luis los llamamos Lucho; a las Luisa, Lucha.
En Chile, por lo menos.
:rolleyes:

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Bueno saberlo, para la colección de variedades regionales. :D