How do I say "Ich heiße"?

Ich heiße is one of the most important introductory phrases in German and it means I am called or My name is. It is pronounced roughly as ish hye-suh. The Ich has that soft ich sound like a gentle hiss in the back of the mouth, not a hard k. Heiße uses the sharp s sound ß which is called Eszett and sounds like ss, so heiße sounds like hye-suh. You use it by adding your name right after it. For example Ich heiße Anna or Ich heiße Michael. It is slightly more common and natural than Ich bin Anna, although both are understood. The verb heiße comes from heißen which means to be called. The full conjugation is ich heiße, du heißt, er sie es heißt, wir heißen, ihr heißt, sie heißen. So if you ask someone else you say Wie heißt du in informal speech or Wie heißen Sie in formal speech. A complete conversation would be Hallo, wie heißt du, Ich heiße Thomas, und du. It is important to use the ß correctly. In Switzerland they write heisse instead of heiße because they do not use ß, but pronunciation is the same. This phrase is polite, neutral and works in any situation.