Learn how to ask about someone's age
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| Introduction |
| Eric: Welcome to 3-Minute Chinese Season 1, Lesson 8 - Talking About Your Age. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask someone's age and how to say how old you are in Chinese. |
| Body |
| Eric: Here's the informal way to ask "How old are you?" in Chinese. |
| Cho: [Normal] 你多大了？(nǐ duō dà le?) |
| Eric: First is a pronoun meaning "you" |
| Cho: [Normal] 你 [Slow] 你 (nǐ) |
| Eric: Next is the phrase meaning "how old" |
| Cho: [Normal] 多大 [Slow] 多大(duō dà) |
| Eric: Last is the particle indicating a state. |
| Cho: [Normal] 了 [Slow] 了(le) |
| Eric: Listen again to the informal question meaning "How old are you?" |
| Cho: [Slow] 你多大了？ [Normal] 你多大了？ |
| Eric: Now, imagine you're speaking to a stranger. Here's the formal way to ask, "How old are you?" |
| Cho: [Normal] 你几岁了？(nǐ jǐ suìle?) |
| Eric: First is a pronoun meaning "you" |
| Cho: [Normal] 你 [Slow] 你 (nǐ) |
| Eric: Next is the word meaning "how many" |
| Cho: [Normal] 几 [Slow] 几(jǐ) |
| Eric: Followed by the word meaning "year-old" |
| Cho: [Normal] 岁 [Slow] 岁(suì) |
| Eric: Last is the particle indicating a state. |
| Cho: [Normal] 了 [Slow] 了(le) |
| Eric: Listen again to the formal question meaning "How old are you?" |
| Cho: [Slow] 你几岁了？ [Normal] 你几岁了？ |
| Eric: Here's a response meaning "I am 17." |
| Cho: [Normal] 我17岁。(wǒ shíqī suì.) |
| Eric: First is a pronoun meaning "I" |
| Cho: [Normal] 我 [Slow] 我(wǒ) |
| Eric: Next is the number "seventeen” |
| Cho: [Normal] 十七 [Slow] 十七(shíqī) |
| Eric: Last is the word meaning "year-old" |
| Cho: [Normal] 岁 [Slow] 岁(suì) |
| Eric: Listen again to the response meaning "I am 17." |
| Cho: [Slow] 我17岁。 [Normal] 我17岁。 |
| Eric: Here's a response meaning, "I prefer not to say." |
| Cho: [Normal] 无可奉告。(wú kě fèng gào.) |
| Eric: First is a word meaning "no" |
| Cho: [Normal] 无 [Slow] 无(wú) |
| Eric: Next is the word meaning "can,” which you can use to add emphasis. |
| Cho: [Normal] 可 [Slow] 可(kě) |
| Eric: Last is the verb meaning "to tell, to inform" |
| Cho: [Normal] 奉告 [Slow] 奉告(fèng gào) |
| Eric: Listen again to the response meaning "I prefer not to say." |
| Cho: [Slow] 无可奉告。 [Normal] 无可奉告。 |
| Cultural Insight |
| Eric: Now it's time for a quick cultural insight. |
| Cho: When we talk about numbers like telephone numbers, bus numbers and so on, we pronounce 1 as yāo. |
| For example, a bus number one-oh-one would usually be pronounced as yāo líng yāo in Chinese. You can even use yāo instead of yī meaning "number one" when saying phone numbers. Try it when you are in China! People will be impressed. |
Outro |
|---|
| Eric: And that’s all for this lesson. Don’t forget to check out the lesson notes, and we’ll see you in the next lesson! |
| Cho: 再见。 |
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