Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the world after English. Spanish is a part of the Indo-European language and considered a Romance language. The language has a strong relation to Portuguese and Italian. Spanish is widely spoken by more than four hundred million speakers especially in Latin America, Spain, and also the US.
Latin alphabet is what Spanish has on their alphabet systems. The vowels can take an acute accent and an additional letter ñ. If you are a beginner in the Spanish language, you may find difficulty when write or spell a, i, e. somehow, the consonants like h, j, r, y can also be a concern as they have different names in Spanish.
The writing system in English is way different than Spanish. However, exclamation or punctuate question is normal in Spanish since there are no question marks recognized in Spanish.
When talking Spanish for the first time you may feel a little bit hesitant whether you spell the language well or not. Somehow, the experience is the best teacher. Try to speak once, and then you will get accustomed to it. So, how to ask about someone’s age? Is it different from English? Or is it simpler? To learn more about the Spanish language, check out this review on Synergy Spanish course at SpanishEDURev.com
Well, when asking someone about her/his age, there are two ways of asking it:
- “Cuantos años tienes?” Or,
- “Que edad tienes?”
You can’t go wrong with either one, even though the first expression is commonly used. Since “edad” means age, this is also such a proper way of asking about someone’s age. Furthermore, it is also commonly used when discussing something that relates to age. Hence, if you are going to talk about how young someone looks on their age, you’d better use “edad”.
For example: Te ves muy joven para tu edad (you look very young for your age).
If you prefer using “cuantos años tienes” rather than “que edad tienes” you’d have to change the question context as you are asking someone’s age would indicate that you have no idea how old is she/he.
For example: “Te ves muy joven. Cuantos años tienes?” (You look very young. How old are you?)
Nonetheless, the response is depending on how you are being asked or how you are asking the question. In a nutshell, you can instantly know the expression by keep reminding “tener…… años”. Años means years in English while tener means belonging.
For example:
Q : que edad tienes? (How old are you)
A : mi edad es treinta y nueve años (my age is thirty-nine years old)
Now, compare that expression with this one
Q : ¿cuantos años tienes? (How old are you?)
A : tengo treinta y nueve años. (I’m thirty-nine years old)
The word order of Spanish is quite similar to English (subject + verb + object). However, Spanish is more flexible than English where the end of a sentence is emphasized. This may end up with non-standard syntax when compared to English.
When learning Spanish for the first time, you may find it’s quite different from English, but several words are the same. Unlike English that has complex grammars, Spanish is simpler and easier.
