How do you ask someone’s age in Italian?

To ask someone’s age in Italian, you say “Quanti anni hai?” — word for word, “How many years do you have?” Italian treats age as something you possess, using the verb “have” (avere), while English uses “be.” So the answer follows the same pattern: “Ho vent’anni” — “I have twenty years.” Keep this in mind and you’ll avoid the common beginner slip of saying “I am twenty years,” which sounds off to Italian ears.

The key word is “hai,” the “you” form of avere (to have); for yourself you say “ho” (I have). So: “Quanti anni hai?” — “Ho 19 anni, e tu?” — “Ho vent’anni.” Notice “vent’anni”: venti (twenty) drops its final i before anni, written with an apostrophe. Several languages do this — French (“j’ai vingt ans”) and Spanish (“tengo veinte años”) also use “have” for age, so if you know one, the pattern carries over. In the clip two people meet and run through the basics — names, then “Quanti anni hai? Ho 19 anni, e tu? Ho vent’anni” — making it a clean model for trading ages when you first meet someone. A softer, more formal version swaps hai for ha: “Quanti anni ha?”