I have a friend, he is or his name is?

Question

I was asked to write a passage to introduce a friend, which I wrote

"I have a friend. He is Mike..."

and my teacher said "he is" is kind of wrong here, it should be "his name is..."; I agree "his name is..." is better when it comes to introducing a person.

My question is, when there are two friends to be introduced, should I say

"I have two friends. Their names are..."?

It sounds kind of weird to me, I think

"they are XXX and XXX"

will be better.

Answer 1

“He is Mike” is grammatically correct but doesn’t sound natural.

If you are just naming your friend(s), then you can do this:

• I have a friend. His name is Mike.
• I have two friends. Their names are Mike and Bob.

This is equivalent:

• I have a friend. He is named Mike.
• I have two friends. They are named Mike and Bob.

But it would be simpler to say this:

• I have a friend named Mike.
• I have two friends named Mike and Bob.

Answer 2

You could also say "I have a friend, Mike, who ..." This is probably the more natural way of speaking.

"I have a friend. His name is Mike." is correct, but probably more formal than most people would use in conversation.