Telling age in Thai with “aa-yú”

When telling age, Thai people say อายุ … ปี (aa-yú … bpee). So, 15 years old is อายุ 15 ปี (aa-yú 15 bpee).

อายุ (aa-yú) means age. ปี (bpee) means year.

If you are between 1-12 years old, say ขวบ (kùuap) instead of ปี (bpee).

Contents
  1. Structure
  2. Examples
  3. Common mistakes
    1. Examples
  4. Further resources

Structure

Sometimes you can omit ปี/ขวบ (bpee/kùuap) but the word อายุ (aa-yú) is important to say when talking about age.

“12 years old” in Thai, is like literally saying “age 12 years”.

Ages 13 and above, use:

⭐️ อายุ (aa-yú) + age number + ปี (bpee)

Ages 1-12, use:

⭐️ อายุ (aa-yú) + age number + ขวบ (kùuap)

Examples

  • คุณอายุเท่าไร kun aa-yú tâo rai ➜ How old are you?
  • ผู้ชายอายุ 31 pôo chaai aa-yú săam-sìp-èt ➜ The man is 31.
  • ผู้ชายอายุ 23 ปี pôo chaai aa-yú yêe-sìp-săam bpee ➜ The man is 23 years old.
  • เด็กอายุ 12 dèk aa-yú sìp-sŏng ➜ The kid is 12.
  • เด็กอายุ 12 ขวบ dèk aa-yú sìp-sŏng kùuap ➜ The kid is 12 years old.

Common mistakes

It’s common for foreigners to forget to put the word อายุ (aa-yú) before the age number since in English you don’t have to say “I’m age 31 years old”, you just say “I’m 31 years old”. But in Thai, you must put the word for ‘age’ before your actual age as shown in the following examples.

Examples

  • Wrong ❌ ผม 31 ปี pŏm săam-sìp-èt bpee 👉 you need the word 'aa-yú' before the age ➜ I am 31 years old.
  • Correct ✅ ผมอายุ 31(ปี) pŏm aa-yú săam-sìp-èt (bpee) 👉 the 'bpee' at the end is optional ➜ I am 30 years old
  • Wrong ❌ เด็กคนนี้ 12 ขวบ dèk kon née sìp-sŏng kùuap 👉 you need the word 'aa-yú' before the age ➜ This kid is 12 years old.
  • Correct ✅ เด็กคนนี้อายุ 12 (ขวบ) dèk kon née aa-yú sìp-sŏng (kùuap) 👉 the 'kùuap' at the end is optional ➜ This kid is 12 years old.

Further resources