Vocabulary 1+2:

一(yī) one

二(èr) two

三(sān) three

四(sì) four

五(wǔ) five

六(liù) six

七(qī) seven

八(bā) eight

九(jiǔ) nine

十(shí) ten

几(jǐ) how many

岁 (suì) years old (in age)

几岁(jǐ suì) how old (asking a person with the age of younger than 10)

多大(duō dà) how old (asking a person with the age of over 10)

您(nín) you (respectfully)

也(yě) also

加(jiā) add; plus

等于 ( děngyú ) equal to

两(liǎng) two of something

Script and Translation:

Shālì: Mǐnyǔ, nǐ jǐ suì? 莎莉: 敏宇，你几岁？

Sally: How old are you, Minwoo?

Mǐnyǔ: Wǒ wǔ suì. Pítè, nǐ jǐ suì?

敏宇: 我五岁。皮特，你几岁？

Minwoo: I'm five years old. How old are you, Peter?

Pítè: Wǒ liù suì.皮特: 我六岁。

Peter: I'm six.

Shālì: Wǒ yě liù suì. 莎莉: 我也六岁。

Sally: Me too! I'm six years old.

Mǐnyǔ: Lǎoshī, nín duō dà? 敏宇: 老师，您多大？

Minwoo: Mrs. Kelly! How old are you?

Lǎoshī: Wǒ yī jiā èr, jiā sān, jiā sì, jiā wǔ, jiā liù, jiā qī......

老师：我一加二，加三，加四，加五，加六，加七......

Teacher: I am 1 plus 2 plus 3 plus 4 plus 5 plus 6 plus 7 . . .

Note:

1) The difference between 两 (liǎng) and 二(èr) :

两 (liǎng) is used when counting people or things, meaning "two of something". For example: 两个人(liǎng gè rén) is two people. 个 (gè) is a measure word which is inserted between a number and a noun. We will learn more about measure word in future lessons.

二(èr) is normally used in numbers. For example: 二十二 is twenty two.

2) The difference between 您 (nín) and 你 (nǐ) :

Both 您 (nín) and 你 (nǐ) mean "you" and their character and pinyin are very similar. However, when we want to show respect, we change the pronoun 你 (nǐ) to 您 (nín). For example, you will hear 您 (nín) when a student is talking to her teacher, a hostess is greeting a guest, a worker is talking to his boss or a younger person is talking to a senior.

3) Different ways to ask for one's age:

In order to be culturally appropriate, we should use different words when we ask different age groups.

To ask young children younger than 10: 你几岁？(Nǐ jǐ suì?) or 你几岁了？(Nǐ jǐ suì le?)

To ask people older than 10 in general: 你多大？(Nǐ duō dà?) or 你多大了？(Nǐ duō dà le?)

To ask seniors(old people) and show respect: 您贵庚？(Nín guì gēng?) or 您贵庚了？(Nín guì gēng le?)

The answer to the questions above would be the same , i.e. 我XX岁 (Wǒ XX suì.) or 我XX岁了。(Wǒ XX suì le. )

Be careful that some people might feel offended when asked about their ages, especially ladies. So if you want to be super polite, please use 请问 (qǐng wèn) , which means "May I ask", before you ask the question.