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Questions & Answers about Que idade tem a tua filha?
Why use Que idade tem instead of Quantos anos tem? Is there a difference?
Could I leave out the article a and just say tua filha?
In European Portuguese, the definite article (in this case, a) is required before a possessive pronoun like tua in almost all regular sentences. While Brazilian Portuguese often drops it, leaving it out in Portugal sounds unnatural unless you are directly addressing the person.
If I wanted to use the formal você, would I just change tua to sua?
Grammatically, yes: Que idade tem a sua filha?. However, because sua can mean your, his, hers, or theirs, it can sometimes be ambiguous. To be crystal clear and very polite, native speakers often replace the possessive entirely and ask Que idade tem a filha do senhor? or da senhora?.
As a reminder, why do we use tem instead of a form of the verb to be?