How Old Are You in Persian: How to Ask, Answer and Talk About Age

To ask “How old are you?” in Persian, say چند سالته؟ (chand sâlete?) to a friend or a child, and شما چند سالتونه؟ (shomâ chand sâletune?) to be polite. The formal, written version is شما چند سال دارید؟ (shomâ chand sâl dârid?). To answer, say بیست سالمه (bist sâlame), “I’m twenty,” or formally بیست سال دارم (bist sâl dâram).

That covers the basic exchange. Below you will find every form you are likely to need: polite and casual questions, how to answer for yourself and for other people, how to talk about babies, birthdays and birth years, the age words Iranians use (and the one to avoid), and the small bits of politeness that come with asking someone’s age in Iran. Each key phrase has a Listen button, and there is practice after each section.

How to ask “How old are you?” in Persian

Persian asks about age with the word چند (chand, “how many”) and سال (sâl, “year”). There are two patterns. The everyday spoken one literally says “How many years is yours?” The formal one says “How many years do you have?”, much like Spanish or French.

Listen and repeat: چند سالته؟ Listen شما چند سالتونه؟ Listen شما چند سال دارید؟ Listen

How the spoken question is built

چند سالته؟ is three small pieces:

• چند (chand): how many
• سال (sâl): year. After چند, the noun always stays singular, so never چند سال‌ها.
• ـت + ـه (-et + -e): the suffix “your” plus the spoken form of است (ast, “is”). Written out in full, it would be چند سالت است؟, which nobody actually says.

Swap the “your” suffix and you can ask about anyone: سالتونه (sâletune) for polite or plural “you”, سالشه (sâleshe) for “he” or “she”. Persian has no he/she distinction, so چند سالشه؟ (chand sâleshe?) means both “How old is he?” and “How old is she?”. If you have not met these endings yet, the lesson on polite pronouns: shomâ instead of to explains when to switch to the polite form.

The formal question with dâshtan

The second pattern uses the verb داشتن (dâshtan, “to have”): شما چند سال دارید؟, literally “How many years do you have?” This is the form you see in books, news and forms, and it is the one to use in writing. In conversation it sounds correct but a bit careful. Most Iranians, even when being polite, will say چند سالتونه؟ in everyday speech.

How to say your age in Persian

Answering follows the same two patterns. In speech, put the number before سالمه (sâlame, “is my years”, that is, “I’m … years old”). In writing, use the number + سال دارم (sâl dâram, “I have … years”).

Listen: بیست سالمه Listen بیست سال دارم Listen

Iranians count age the same way English speakers do: the number of full years you have lived. There is no extra year added at birth. The tricky part for learners is usually the numbers themselves, especially compound numbers, which are joined with و (o, “and”): بیست و یک (bist-o yek, 21), چهل و هشت (chehel-o hasht, 48).

Age endings for every person

Here is the full set for the spoken and the formal pattern, using 30 as the example. Notice that the spoken endings are possessive suffixes (“my years”, “your years”) while the formal ones are ordinary verb endings on داشتن.

In speech, دارد and دارند become داره (dâre) and دارن (dâran). The verb داشتن conjugates a little differently from other verbs (no می in the present), which is covered in the grammar part of Learn to Speak Persian Fast, Lesson 8.

Turning, was, and will be

To talk about age in the past or future, keep the possessive suffix and change the verb. “Become” (شدن, shodan) is how Persian says “turn”.

Note the ending ـسالگی (-sâlegi), “the age of”: در هجده‌سالگی (dar hejdah-sâlegi) means “at (the age of) eighteen”.

Approximate ages, babies and “X-year-old”

• نزدیک سی سالمه (nazdik-e si sâlame): I’m almost thirty.
• حدود چهل سالشه (hodud-e chehel sâleshe): he/she’s about forty.
• سی و خرده‌ای سالشه (si-o khorde’i sâleshe): he/she’s thirty-something (spoken).
• بالای شصت سال (bâlâ-ye shast sâl): over sixty; زیر هجده سال (zir-e hejdah sâl): under eighteen.
• For babies, count months: بچه چند ماهشه؟ (bachche chand mâheshe?), “How many months old is the baby?” Answer: شش ماهشه (shesh mâheshe), “six months.” One and a half is یک سال و نیمشه (yek sâl-o nimeshe).
• To use an age as an adjective, add ـه (-e) to سال: یک پسر ده‌ساله (yek pesar-e dah-sâle), “a ten-year-old boy”; یک زن چهل‌ساله (yek zan-e chehel-sâle), “a forty-year-old woman”.

Listen: شش ماهشه Listen یک پسر ده‌ساله Listen

Asking about other people’s ages

Once you know the endings, asking about family is easy. These come up constantly when Iranians show you family photos, which is exactly the scene in the How Old Are You speaking lesson.

Persian uses “bigger” and “smaller” for older and younger: بزرگ‌تر (bozorgtar) and کوچک‌تر (kuchaktar, spoken کوچیک‌تر, kuchiktar). The oldest child is بچه‌ی بزرگ (bachche-ye bozorg) and the youngest is بچه‌ی کوچیک (bachche-ye kuchik) or ته‌تغاری (tah-taghâri), a fond word for the baby of the family. For the family words themselves, see family members in Persian.

Listen: پدرت چند سالشه؟ Listen دو سال از من بزرگ‌تره Listen

Numbers you need for ages

You only need the numbers 1 to 100 to talk about age, and once you know the tens, the rest is a pattern. The teens are where most learners trip, partly because several have a different spoken pronunciation.

For every number with pronunciation, see Persian numbers 1 to 1,000, and test yourself with the Persian numbers quiz.

Persian words for age and stages of life

A useful warning: پیر (pir) is the dictionary word for “old”, but calling someone پیر to their face is about as tactful as calling someone “old” in English. Say مسن (mosen) or بزرگ‌تر (bozorgtar) instead. Also note that “old” for objects is a different word altogether: قدیمی (ghadimi) or کهنه (kohne). The Lesson 8 word list has more age and family vocabulary.

Listen: مسن Listen نوجوان Listen

Birthdays and birth years

Age questions often lead to birthdays. The word is تولد (tavallod), which means both “birth” and “birthday”.

Listen: تولدت کیه؟ Listen تولدت مبارک Listen

When Iranians say their birth year, they almost always use the Iranian solar calendar, not the Gregorian one. Someone who says متولد هفتادم (motevalled-e haftâdam, “I’m born in seventy”, spoken) means the year 1370, which began in March 1991. The same calendar explains the generation labels you will hear all the time: دهه‌ی شصتی (dahe-ye shasti, “a sixties kid”) is someone born in the 1360s, roughly 1981 to 1991, and دهه‌ی هفتادی (dahe-ye haftâdi) is someone born in the 1370s, roughly 1991 to 2001. Because the Iranian year starts at Nowruz in late March, it does not line up exactly with the Gregorian year. You can convert any date with the Persian date converter. For birthday wishes and songs, see happy birthday in Persian.

Is it rude to ask someone’s age in Iran?

Not usually, and less often than many English speakers expect. Age matters in Iranian social life because it shapes who shows respect to whom: younger people often use شما with older people, stand up when an elder enters, and serve them first. So between students, colleagues of similar rank, or new friends, چند سالته؟ is an ordinary question, and it may come up early in a conversation.

The same caution applies as in English, though. Asking an older woman, a boss, or someone you have just met at a formal event can feel personal. In those cases, either skip the question or soften it with اگه اشکالی نداره (age eshkâli nadâre, “if you don’t mind”).

Polite replies and compliments around age

This is where taarof, the Iranian art of polite exchange, comes in. When someone tells you their age, a compliment is the expected move:

• اصلاً بهتون نمی‌خوره (aslan behetun nemikhore): “You don’t look it at all.” The most common compliment after hearing someone’s age.
• ماشالله، چقدر جوون موندید (mâshâllâ, cheghadr javun mundid): “Mashallah, you’ve stayed so young.”
• فکر می‌کردم کوچیک‌ترید (fekr mikardam kuchiktarid): “I thought you were younger.”

And if someone asks you and you would rather not say, a light deflection works: سن که فقط یه عدده (sen ke faghat ye adade, “age is just a number”), or a joking از من گذشته (az man gozashte), “that ship has sailed for me”, said by older people about youthful things. A smile does most of the work.

Listen: اصلاً بهتون نمی‌خوره Listen

A short dialogue: talking about age

Two new classmates, Sara and Ali, are chatting after class. Notice the spoken forms throughout.

Once you can handle this exchange, you can fold it into a full self-introduction. See how to introduce yourself in Persian for name, origin, job and more.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Using a plural after چند. It is چند سال, never چند سال‌ها. The same rule applies to every number: بیست سال, not “twenty years” with a plural ending.
• Mixing the two patterns. Either بیست سالمه or بیست سال دارم. A mix like بیست سال هستم (bist sâl hastam) is wrong.
• Translating “I am … old” word for word. من بیست پیر هستم means nothing in Persian. Age does not use the word “old” at all.
• Using the informal form with elders. چند سالته؟ to a grandmother you just met is too familiar. Use شما and سالتونه.
• Calling people پیر. Say مسن (mosen) or بزرگ‌تر (bozorgtar).

If you want this whole topic as a guided lesson with reading and speaking practice, it is Lesson 8 in Learn to Speak Persian Fast: For Beginners, which the free online lessons above are drawn from.

Common questions

How do you say “how old are you” in Farsi?

Casually, چند سالته؟ (chand sâlete?). Politely, شما چند سالتونه؟ (shomâ chand sâletune?). In formal or written Persian, شما چند سال دارید؟ (shomâ chand sâl dârid?). Farsi and Persian are the same language, so these are the same answer.

How do you say “I am 20 years old” in Persian?

In speech, بیست سالمه (bist sâlame). In writing, بیست سال دارم (bist sâl dâram). Replace بیست with any number; for example, بیست و یک سالمه (bist-o yek sâlame) for 21.

What is the Persian word for age?

The word is سن (sen). You also hear سن و سال (sen-o sâl) in conversation. In everyday questions, though, Iranians rarely use سن; they ask “how many years” instead: چند سالته؟

How do you ask “How old is he/she?” in Persian?

چند سالشه؟ (chand sâleshe?) in speech, or چند سال دارد؟ (chand sâl dârad?) in writing. The same words work for “he” and “she”, since Persian has no grammatical gender.

Is it rude to ask someone’s age in Iran?

Between peers and with young people it is a normal question. With older people, especially older women, or in formal settings, it can feel personal, so soften it with اگه اشکالی نداره (if you don’t mind) or simply don’t ask. When someone tells you, a compliment like اصلاً بهتون نمی‌خوره is the polite reply.

How do you ask “When is your birthday?” in Persian?

تولدت کیه؟ (tavallodet keye?) informally, or تولدتون کیه؟ (tavallodetun keye?) politely. Iranians often give the date in the Iranian solar calendar, so you may hear a Persian month name such as مهر (mehr) in the answer.

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