Learn Mandarin Chinese – How old are you? Ages (Lesson 49)

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Languages

Learn a couple of ways to ask and answer how old someone is.
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║ Sections
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Nǐ Duó Dà Le? – 0:38
How Old – 0:54
Nǐ Duó Dà? – 1:14
Nǐ Duó Dà Le? – 1:32
Nǐmen Nǚháizi Jǐsuì Le? – 2:25
Years Of Age – 2:45
How Many Years Of Age – 2:53
Ages – 3:09
Nǐmen Nǚháizi Jǐsuì Le? – 3:23
I’m 27. – 3:51
Tāmen Nánháizi Dōu Jǐsuì Le? – 4:09
How Old Are Their Boys? – 4:34
Tāmen Nánháizi Dōu Jǐsuì Le? – 4:52

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║ Credits
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Producer – Fame Ketover

Writers – John Harvey, Lucille Barale, Roberta Barry, Thomas Madden, Susan Pola

Script Supervisor – Fame Ketover

Chinese Speakers – Chuan Chao, Ying-chih Chen, Hsiao-jung Chen, Eva Diao, Jan Hu, Tsung-mi Li, Yunhui Yang

Original Music – Fame Ketover

Editor – Fame Ketover

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Stock Imagery – Wikimedia Commons, Shutterstock

║ Lesson Transcript
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Full transcript ► https://lenguin.com/learn/chinese/how-old-are-you/transcript

Partial transcript
—————————————-——-
Hi, I’m Fame Ketover of Lenguin.com and this is Mandarin Chinese. Today’s lesson will look at how to ask and answer questions about age.
Here’s a common way of asking someone’s age.
Listen.

● How old are you?
○ Nǐ duó dà le?
○ Nǐ duó dà le?
● I’m 24.
○ Wǒ èrshisì le.
○ Wǒ èrshisì le.

Here’s the expression for “how old”.
duó dà
duó dà
duó dà

By itself, the word “duó” means “how” in the sense of “how much” and the word “dà” means “big”. These sentences could also be said without the final “le” markers.
Listen.
○ Nǐ duó dà?
○ Wǒ èrshisì.

Notice that the verb “to be” seems to be missing in these sentences. In English we would have to say, “You are how big (or old)?” – “I -am- 24”.
Here’s the original exchange again, live.
○ Nǐ duó dà le?
○ Wǒ èrshisì le.

The marker “le” which ends both sentences is “new situation le” alone, without “completed action le”. After all, being a certain age is a state not an action. The second speaker is saying that she has changed from the state of being 23 to the state of being 24.
Now listen to the exchage again.
○ Nǐ duó dà le?
○ Wǒ èrshisì le.

Try translating it.
○ Nǐ duó dà le?
● How old are you?
○ Wǒ èrshisì…