Lesson 20: How old are you in Vietnamese

Summary: If you can’t guess the age of the person you’re talking to in order to choose the right pronoun, asking their age is normal in Vietnam. Learn how to ask “How old are you?” in Vietnamese in today’s lesson and practice with your local friends.

1. Vocabulary about age and school in Vietnamese

Tuổi

Bao nhiêu?

Học

Học sinh

Trường

Lớp

2. How old are you in Vietnamese

Question:

Vietnamese:	[Pronoun]	+		+	bao nhiêu	+	tuổi?
	1				2		3
English:	How	+	old	+	[am/ are/ is]	+	[I/ you/ he/ etc.]?
	2		3				1

Answer:

Vietnamese:	[Pronoun]	+			[number]	+	tuổi.
	1				2		3
English:	[I/ You/ He/ etc.]	+	[am/ are/ is]	+	[number]	+	year(s) old.
	1				2		3

The difference between “bao nhiêu” and “mấy”

They both mean “How much/how many” in English, but the difference is:

“Bao nhiêu” means “how much/how many” but you don’t know or can’t estimate the answer.
“Mấy” also means “how much/how many” but you know the group of potential answers or you can estimate the answer, and the estimated/potential answers should be small.

Examples:

Vietnamese	English
Em bao nhiêu tuổi? ⇒ Em 15 tuổi.	How old are you? ⇒ I’m 15 years old.
Con [mấy/bao nhiêu] tuổi? ⇒ Con 5 tuổi.	How old are you? ⇒ I’m 5 years old.
Bà của bạn bao nhiêu tuổi? ⇒ Bà ấy 80.	How old is your grandma? ⇒ She’s 80.

Quiz 01: Choose the correct response in Vietnamese for the question “How old is Mrs. Van?”

(Note: Correct answer button will turn green.)

Do you notice that there is no verb in the question and answer about age? So, how can be make a yes-no question? The only way to make a yes-no question in this case is to use “... phải không?” (..., right?) to make a yes-no question.

Examples:

Vietnamese	English
Bà ấy 80 tuổi phải không? ⇒ Phải. Bà ấy 80 tuổi. ⇒ Không. Bà ấy không phải 80 tuổi.	She is 80 years old, right? ⇒ Yes, she is. ⇒ No, she isn’t.
Mẹ của bạn 50 tuổi phải không? ⇒ Phải. Bà ấy 50 tuổi. ⇒ Không. Bà ấy không phải 50 tuổi./ Không. Bà ấy 45 tuổi.	Your mom is 50 years old, right? ⇒ Yes, she is. ⇒ No, she isn’t. / No, she is 45 years old.

Quiz 02: Choose the correct response for the question “Chị Linh 35 tuổi phải không?”

(Note: Correct answer button will turn green.)

3. Other questions about school and class in Vietnamese

3.1. What grade are you in in Vietnamese

Question:

Vietnamese:	[Pronoun]	+	học	+	lớp	+	mấy?
	1		2		3		4
English:	What	+	grade	+	[am/ are/ is]	+	[I/ you/ he/ etc.]	+	in?
	4		3		2		1

Answer:

Vietnamese:	[Pronoun]	+	học	+	lớp	+	[number]
	1		2		3		4
English:	[I/ You/ He/ etc.]	+	[am/ are/ is]	+	in	+	[number]
	4		3		2		1

Examples:

Vietnamese	English
Em học lớp mấy? ⇒ Em học lớp 10.	What grade are you in? ⇒ I’m in grade 10.
Con học lớp mấy? ⇒ Con học lớp 2.	What grade are you in? ⇒ I’m in grade 2.

3.2. What school are you in in Vietnamese

Question:

Vietnamese:	[Pronoun]	+	học	+	trường	+	nào?
	1		2		3		4
English:	What	+	school	+	[am/ are/ is]	+	[I/ you/ he/ etc.]	+	in?
	4		3		2		1

Answer:

Vietnamese:	[Pronoun]	+	học	+	trường	+	[name of the school]
	1		2		3		4
English:	[I/ You/ He/ etc.]	+	[am/ are/ is]	+	in	+	[name of the school]
	4		3		2		1

Note: In English, you use “What” for both questions about school and grade. However, in Vietnamese, you use “mấy” (how many) to ask about class/grade because the answer is a number.

Examples:

Vietnamese	English
Bạn học trường nào? ⇒ Tôi học trường Đinh Thiện Lý.	What school are you in? ⇒ I’m in Lawrence S.Ting school.
Em học trường nào? ⇒ Em học trường Marie Curie.	What school are you in? ⇒ I’m in Marie Curie school.

Quiz 03: How to ask if grade 10 students of Marie Curie school know Japanese?

(Note: Correct answer button will turn green.)

4. Dialog


	Vietnamese	English
Phong	Xin chào, cô là giáo viên tiếng Nhật phải không? Em muốn học tiếng Nhật.	Hello, you’re Japanese teacher, right? I want to learn Japanese.
Suki	Em bao nhiêu tuổi? Em học lớp mấy?	How old are you? Which grade are you in?
Phong	Em 15 tuổi và em học lớp 9.	I’m 15 and I’m in grade 9.
Suki	Em học trường nào?	Which school are you in?
Phong	Em học trường Phan Bội Châu.	I’m in Phan Boi Choi school.
Suki	Em có biết cô Min không?	Do you know Miss Min?
Phong	Có, em biết cô Min. Cô ấy là giáo viên tiếng Anh của em.	Yes, I do. She is my English teacher.
Suki	Cô ấy là bạn của cô. Rất vui được biết em.	She is my friend. Nice to meet you!
Phong	Rất vui được biết cô.	Nice to meet you too!

Well done! You’ve reached ⅔ of the Learn Vietnamese 30 Days journey - Level 01. It may seem slow, but we’re building a stable and strong foundation for your learning Vietnamese journey. Keep practicing and you’ll see great progress. In the next lesson, we will learn how to ask people their address and use numbers to answer the question. See you in the next lesson:

Keep up the great work and continue to learn Vietnamese every day. Tạm biệt và hẹn gặp lại! (Goodbye and see you again!)

Lesson 02: Vietnamese alphabet, tone marks and spelling rules

Summary: This lesson is an overview of Vietnamese alphabet, tone marks, and a Vietnamese word structure. It may seem like a lot, but you don't need to remember everything in this lesson, because I will introduce all letters one-by-one in the next lessons. Vietnamese alphabet and pronunciation of each letter. Six tone marks are used. A simplified structure of a word in Vietnamese that you can use to learn spelling rules in Vietnamese later. Hello, happy to see you here again! If this is the first time you're here, you can go back to the Learn Vietnamese instruction to know where you're at. If not, let's get started! 1. Vietnamese Alphabet The Vietnamese alphabet contains 29 letters, including seven letters using four diacritics (ă, â, đ, ê, ô, ơ, and ư) and five tone marks combined with only vowels (for example: ò, ó, ỏ, õ, ọ). VIETNAMESE ALPHABET A / a Ă / ă Â / â B / b C / c D

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