年纪 is the correct answer, but it's definitely a tricky question. I'll check with Echo and see if there's a good explanation for the difference.

Hi everyone and congratulations on the launch of this site ! I especially like the HSK section. I have been learning Chinese for a while now, I would say I am at an intermediate level, but I am fairly new to doing it online. All these professional comments are slightly intimidating;)

I would like to ask a question, anyways:

Concerning 伏天 (fútiān, hot summer days, dog days) I found the expression: 今天是个伏天了!

What does adding the particle 了 change in that sentence ? I hope it is okay asking such a specific grammar question in this section...

The explanation on 'age' was really helpful, gee, I had no idea one is not supposed to just ask '多大了?' if the person is older...

Hi Maple,

I'm a groupie of David's.

Hi Maple,

I'm a groupie of David's.

"今天是个伏天了!"...I don't really talk like that...Anyway, adding the particle 了 made it past tense in Chinese, to my understanding. Although I would prefer to translate it into 'It has been like a summer day today' or 'it feels like a summer day today', rather than using past tense or simply say 'it's a summer day today'.

'多大了?' ... if you just say these 3 characters, usually it refers to kids. If you ask someone senior, you would say '您多大了？or even ‘您高寿？'. Use '您' to show respect.

@Maple,

伏天, you can also say 三伏天, refers to a certain period of time during Chinese solar period 小暑 and 大暑. Therefore, we rarely say 今天是伏天 or tomorrow is not. It's a period of time. More often, people would say 今天入伏了 or 今天是入伏的第一天, which means stepping into 伏天. You can also say 今天是几伏(天)了, because we 头（初）伏，二伏，三伏，altogether 三伏天. There are 10 days for one 伏.

For the 了 question, Leanne has already given a good answer. We use 着，了，过 to mark different tense, since we don't have verbal inflection in Chinese. 了 is for past tense.

We don't have specific rules that 几岁 has to be used for kids under 10 years old, but it's definitely used to ask kids' ages. I don't think it is always respectful to ask someone older 您多大了 though. 您多大年纪了 or 您多大岁数了 is better. 您高寿了 is also very good.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

Wow. 伏天 isn't even in my dictionary at all, although it's in my IME so it gotta be a legit word. Where did you run into it?

@brett,

I studied Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language in Beijing Language and Culture University for 4 years. It is my major.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

@Echo,

What a prospect;)...

@orbital,

Good Luck tomorrow:)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

Or I could just click on the Quiz button - that works too!

Great conversation! Asking someone's age was definitely one of those areas where I was confused before about the appropriate way to say it...Thanks to Echo, I am not confused anymore. Echo, I'll let you be the first person I try this on... 您多大岁数了?

Yikes...guess I am still confused. I thought that you were saying that “多大岁数 was appropriate to ask any adult. In my Chinese class, only two distinctions were really taught with respect to asking about age...what to ask kids under 10 and what to ask everyone else. I thought the teacher had told us to ask, 你今年多大? for most everyone and, for the really young kids (<10) ask, 你几岁？ Should I add to this list that for 很老人 I should ask 多大岁数?

谢谢您帮我忙！

@gedaozhen

If I have it right: you can ask 你/您今年多大 to anyone. Adding 年纪 or 岁数 just makes things a little more formal and polite. I've had a middle aged person ask me 你今年多大年纪了, and I'm in my early twenties. So there are no hard rules, but you should in general be a little more polite when talking to older people.

@echo

我还以为你没有那么大呢，但大家都说你好mature喔。。你已经毕业了很久很久么？？