Learn how to ask someone's age
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone. I’m Becky. Welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com This is the Absolute Beginner series, Season 1, Lesson 4 - Talking About Ages in Vietnamese |
| Huyen: Xin chào! I’m Huyen. In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask about ages in Vietnamese. |
| Becky: This conversation takes place at an English club, and it’s between Lan and Mary who are strangers and meet each other for the first time. |
| Huyen: Therefore, they’ll be speaking formal Vietnamese. |
| Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Lan: Bạn bao nhiêu tuổi? |
| Mary: Tôi hai mươi tuổi. Còn bạn? |
| Lan: Tôi hai mươi ba tuổi. |
| Mary: Bạn sinh năm nào? |
| Lan: Tôi sinh năm tám chín. |
| Mary: Ồ, vậy hơn tuổi tôi rồi. Tôi phải gọi bạn là "chị" nhỉ? |
| Lan: Đúng rồi. |
| Lan: How old are you? |
| Mary: I'm twenty. And you? |
| Lan: I'm twenty-three. |
| Mary:What year were you born? |
| Lan: I was born in '89 (or 1989.) |
| Mary: Oh, so you're older than me. I need to call you "older sister," right? |
| Lan: That's right. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Huyen, is it common to ask about ages in Vietnam? |
| Huyen: Yes, it is. Vietnamese people often ask each other how old they are. |
| Becky: Even at the first meeting? Isn’t that too personal? |
| Huyen: No, not at all. Don’t think that they are being nosy. In fact, it is because of the complicated system of pronouns. |
| Becky: Ah, I see. In order to choose the right pronoun to call yourself and address the other person properly, you need to know the person’s age. There are no general equivalents of “I” and “you” that can be applied in all situations. |
| Huyen: Exactly. Knowing the other speaker’s age, you can choose appropriate pronouns for your conversation. |
| Becky: So listeners, don’t feel uncomfortable if a Vietnamese asks how old you are when you first meet. You can feel free to ask him or her as well. Okay, now let’s take a look at the vocab |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: The first word we should see is... |
| Huyen: Tuổi |
| Becky: "Age". "Years old". |
| Huyen: Tuổi. Tuổi. |
| Becky: Next. |
| Huyen: Hơn. |
| Becky: "More than". "Better". |
| Huyen: Hơn. Hơn. |
| Becky: Next. |
| Huyen: Phải. |
| Becky: Must. |
| Huyen: Phải |
| Becky: Next. |
| Huyen: Gọi. |
| Becky: "To call" |
| Huyen: Gọi. |
| Becky: Next. |
| Huyen: Chị |
| Becky: "Miss". "Older woman". |
| Huyen: Chị. Chị. |
| Becky: Next. |
| Huyen: Nhỉ. |
| Becky: "Right?". |
| Huyen: Nhỉ. |
| Becky: Next. |
| Huyen: Đúng. |
| Becky: "Right". "Correct". |
| Huyen: Đúng. Đúng. |
| Becky: And last. |
| Huyen: Vậy. |
| Becky: "So". |
| Huyen: Vậy. |
| Becky: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First we have.... |
| Huyen: ...Hơn. |
| Becky: “More”. This adverb is usually added after an adjective or adverb to make the comparative form. For example... |
| Huyen: Đắt hơn |
| Becky: “More expensive” |
| Huyen: Giàu hơn |
| Becky: “Richer” |
| Huyen: Tốt hơn |
| Becky: “Better”. But when saying that someone is older, we don’t usually add this word to the adjective... |
| Huyen: “già” |
| Becky: ...which means “old”. Instead, we say… |
| Huyen: ...hơn tuổi... |
| Becky: ...which literally means “more years”. This way of speaking is more polite and more commonly used. Let’s hear an example. |
| Huyen: Chị ấy hơn tuổi tôi. |
| Becky: “She’s older than me.” Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Huyen: Phải |
| Becky: This is a modal verb, added before a main verb to express necessity or obligation. This is exactly the same as “must” in English. Let’s hear some examples. |
| Huyen: Tôi phải dậy sớm đi học. |
| Becky: “I must get up early to go to school.” |
| Huyen: Tôi phải học chăm chỉ hơn. |
| Becky: “I must study harder.” |
| Huyen: And the word Vậy has the same meaning as "so" in English. For example, Vậy hẹn gặp lại sau nhé! |
| Becky: Which means "So, see you later!" The last word is |
| Huyen: Nhỉ. |
| Becky: This is a sentence-ending particle. It’s added at the end of a sentence to confirm an agreement with what the speaker is saying. It’s similar to a tag question in English. |
| Huyen: For example, Tranh này đẹp nhỉ means... |
| Becky: “This painting is beautiful, isn’t it?” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson you’ll learn how to ask about ages in Vietnamese. |
| Huyen: In Vietnamese, you can ask, Bạn bao nhiêu tuổi? |
| Becky: “How old are you?” The question starts with a pronoun indicating the other person. Here we use the general equivalent of “you”... |
| Huyen: ...which is “bạn”. Then add the phrase bao nhiêu tuổi... |
| Becky: ...which literally means “how many years-old?” but here it means “how old”. To answer this question, simply say... |
| Huyen: ...Tôi and your age and tuổi”. |
| Becky: In the dialogue we have.... |
| Huyen: Bạn bao nhiêu tuổi? - Tôi hai mươi tuổi. |
| Becky: “How old are you?” - “I’m twenty.” There’s another way to ask about age in Vietnamese: |
| Huyen: Bạn sinh năm nào? |
| Becky: “In which year were you born”? Vietnamese people often use the lunar calendar to calculate their ages, so some people tend to tell their lunar age when being asked, which is one year older than their real age. So besides asking how old a person is, Vietnamese people also ask in which year a person was born to know their exact age. |
| Huyen: To answer this question, say Tôi sinh năm and the last two numbers of the year you were born. |
| Becky: In the dialogue we have.... |
| Huyen: Tôi sinh năm tám chín. |
| Huyen: “I was born in 1989.” |
Outro |
|---|
| Becky: That’s it for this lesson. |
| Huyen: I hope you will feel more confident about asking ages in Vietnamese. |
| Becky: Don’t forget to refer to the accompanying PDF lesson notes for more examples. We’ll see you again in the next lesson. |
| Huyen: Tạm biệt! |
Comments
HideBạn bao nhiêu tuổi?
How old are you? :)
Hi Seán,
hank you for your comment and keep up the good work!
And we're glad that you enjoy the lesson. 😄
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Chi
Team VietnamesePod101.com
LOLz. I like that you gave an older example so that I didn't have to Giggle how to say it.
Tôi sinh năm bảy ba. | Tôi năm mươi mốt tuổi.
Hi Hồng R.,
In writing, we would prefer using the number "2009".
However, when speaking, "hai không không chín" is fine.
There are also different ways of saying 2009 - similar to ways of speaking number in Vietnamese that we would learn soon.
Cheers,
Chi
Team VietnamesePod101.com
Xin chào! Tôi tên là Hồng và tôi sinh năm... dê rô chín? How does one say one's age when they're born in a year with no decade number (0)? Would I write out 2009 as "hai không không chín"?
Cám ơn,
Hồng
Hi Aaron,
Yea I know that in Western countries it would be weird or sometimes impolite to ask people about their age.
However, in Vietnamese pronouns, we have "anh/ chị/ em/ cậu/ etc." which we can only determine when we know their age.
And in fact, we usually ask which year they were born rather than asking how old they are.
Hope that it can help.
Cheers,
Chi
VietnamesePod101.com
Its so weird asking someone how old they are when meeting them. In America, we try to avoid asking that if we think the other person is older than us to avoid making them feel old. 😆
Hi Shawn,
Exactly. Usually when we say the year we are born, we just read the number one by one. (1965 - Một chín sáu lăm, or sáu lăm for short).
Happy learning,
Chi
Team VietnamesePod101.com
When saying what year you are born you don’t have to use mươi. For example tôi sinh năm sáu lăm. Tôi sinh năm sáu mươi lăm
Thanks Shawan
Hi Guy,
In the Vocabulary section, for each word, there are two lines.
The 1st is the word in Vietnamese. The one below is its translation into English.
If you don't see any 2nd line, please let us know so we can support asap.
Best regards,
Chi
Team VietnamesePod101.com
Xin chào Hieu,
Thank you very much for your like! We hope you enjoy studying with us.😇
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
Levente
Team VietnamesePod101.com
How can I find translation for the sentences from the vocabs section? This is essentials. Otherwise I’m just reading without understanding.
👍👍👍
Hello Tyler,
Thank you for your comment and keep up the good work! Enjoy the class and let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Khanh
Team VietnamesePod101.com
xìn chào, tên là tyler. tôi hai mươi ba tuổi. tôi sinh năm chín bảy.
Hi Adam,
Thank you for your comment! Your Vietnamese is amazing! (Just a small typo which could probably due to your keyboard but here it is "Tôi đến từ Mỹ." Here you go!). Let us know if you have any questions!
Sincerely,
Khanh
Team VietnamesePod101.com
Hi Peter,
Thank you for your comment! While both "bốn" and "tư" can be translated as "four", in Vietnamese speaking, "tư" is more often used than "bốn". They are both correct, it's just ta common practice by locals. Hope this helps and let us know if you have any further questions!
Sincerely,
Khanh
Team VietnamesePod101.com
Xin chào internet. Tôi tên là Adam. Tôi hai mươi chín tuổi. Tôi sinh năm chín mốt. Tôi đen tư Mỹ. Tạm biệt! Hẹn gặp lại.
In the sample sentence Tôi sinh năm bảy tư (74).
"I was born in 1974."
Why is 'tư' used instead of bon (missing diacritics because only got an English keyboard)? This also seems to be the case for days of the week Wednesday - Thứ Tư and months April - Tháng Tư
Thanks
Hi ted owens,
Thank you for your post and may we know which section are you referring to so we can help improve?
Sincerely,
Khanh
Team VietnamesePod101.com
It would help if the questions and answers were kelp together.