How to Say “How old are you” in Thai
อายุเท่าไหร่
aa-yú thâw-rày
How old are you
ค่ะ (khâ) and ครับ (khráp) are polite particles — they depend on the speaker's gender, not the listener's.
Word by word
When to use it
Asking someone's age is completely normal in Thailand — it's how Thais establish how to address each other (older people are called พี่ (phîi), younger ones น้อง (nɔ́ɔng)). It's not considered rude. อายุ (aa-yú) means "age," เท่าไหร่ (thâw-rày) means "how much/how many."
Why you've seen it spelled differently
You may have seen อายุเท่าไหร่ written as: ah-yu taorai, ayu thaorai, ah yu tao rai.
There is no single standard for writing Thai in the Roman alphabet — phrasebooks, road signs, and tourist guides each follow a different system, and many just invent their own spellings. The romanization on this page uses a consistent IPA-based system that marks all five tones and distinguishes short from long vowels. The same word always gets the same spelling. Paste any Thai to see it romanized →
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