Learn Spanish (Latin America): ¿Cuántos años tienes?

¿Cuántos años tienes?

How old are you?

Breakdown of ¿Cuántos años tienes?

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Questions & Answers about ¿Cuántos años tienes?

Why do we use tienes (you have) instead of a word for 'you are'?

In English we ask how old you are, but in Spanish, you talk about age as something you possess. So you literally ask 'How many years do you have?' using tienes, which is the 'you' form of tener (to have).

Why does Cuántos end in '-os'?

Cuántos means 'how many'. It has to match the word it describes. Since años (years) is a masculine and plural word, cuántos must also be masculine and plural. If you were asking about a feminine word, you would use cuántas.

Could I include the word tú (you) and ask ¿Cuántos años tú tienes?

You can, but it is very common in Spanish to drop the pronoun tú. The verb form tienes already tells us exactly who you are talking to, so adding tú is unnecessary unless you really want to emphasize it.

Why is there an upside-down question mark (¿) at the beginning?

In written Spanish, all questions must begin with an inverted question mark (¿) and end with a standard one (?). This is very helpful because it tells you a question is starting before you even read the sentence.