몇 살이에요?

myeot sa-ri-e-yo · literally “How many years old are you?”

Situation: Chatting with an older neighbor or a new adult acquaintance and asking 'How old are you?'

✕ What AI tells you

Gives '몇 살이에요?' or '몇 살이세요?' regardless of who you're talking to.

Why it fails: 몇 살 is how you ask children or close peers. Asked to an adult you've just met, it sounds childish; to an elder it is rude. Korean switches the noun itself: 나이 for adults, 연세 for elders.

✓ What Koreans actually say

Children/close peers: 몇 살이야? Adults: 나이가 어떻게 되세요? Elders: 연세가 어떻게 되세요? Among young adults, birth year is also common.

  • 연세가 어떻게 되세요?

    yeon-se-ga eo-tteo-ke doe-se-yo

    Asking an older person, e.g. a neighbor or a friend's parent

  • 실례지만 나이가 어떻게 되세요?

    sil-lye-ji-man na-i-ga eo-tteo-ke doe-se-yo

    Asking an adult you've just met, with a softening 'excuse me'

  • 몇 년생이세요?

    myeot nyeon-saeng-i-se-yo

    Common among people of similar age to work out who's older

Cultural nuance, in depth

Age is asked early in Korea not out of nosiness but because it decides speech levels and titles (언니, 형, 선배). That makes the question itself sensitive to hierarchy: 연세 is the honorific noun for age, just as 성함 is for a name and 댁 is for a home. Asking 몇 년생 (birth year) has become a popular, neutral workaround, partly because Korea moved to international age in 2023 and people still sometimes count differently.