Questions & Answers about Tôi hỏi tuổi của cô ấy.
Why is the sentence structured as Tôi hỏi tuổi của cô ấy instead of something closer to English word order?
Vietnamese often follows a straightforward subject + verb + object pattern:
- Tôi = subject
- hỏi = verb
- tuổi của cô ấy = object
So the sentence is literally something like I ask [the age of her].
English prefers I ask her age or I ask about her age, but Vietnamese commonly builds possession with của, so tuổi của cô ấy means her age.
What does hỏi mean here, and can it mean both ask and ask about?
Yes. Hỏi basically means to ask.
Depending on context, it can mean:
- ask someone a question
- ask about something
- inquire about something
In this sentence, hỏi tuổi của cô ấy means asking about her age. Vietnamese does not always need an extra word like English about.
Why is tuổi used? Does it literally mean age?
Yes. Tuổi means age.
So:
- hỏi tuổi = ask someone’s age
- tuổi của cô ấy = her age
This is different from English, where we often say How old is she? or I asked her age. Vietnamese uses the noun tuổi very naturally in this kind of expression.