how old are you
- idiom
- How old were you when Harper was born?
- Hey, how old are you
- how old are you, really
- how old are you, son
And, you know, how old are you?
- And, you know, how old are you?
- Your heart was strong, your body was, you know, how old were you?
- And the first thing he asked him was how old are you?
- So how old were you when you guys found out that Castro executed your father?
- So he was having coffee every day with an octogenarian who said always, how old are you?
- So he's so he's like, I've been here about three years and he goes, yeah, he said how old are you?
- So up until you make a very good living right now, I won't disclose your numbers, but how old are you?
- Now racism back then, you know, how old are you?
- And for your whole life, though, leading up to this, I guess, how, how old were you when, when you went to that desk?
- Like dude, it was the whole thing was how old are you?
- And just pass out again and just I won't even how, how old were you when you got married?
Examples
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"Little fella, how old are you?"
Fiction book (1995) -
Your question, how old were you when you had your first celebrity crush?
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So if I could, how old are you and how did you get involved in the fine art business?
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OK, how, how old were you when you sort of started to realize that you like that stuff?
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And how old are you?
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Say, to decide a bet, how old are you?
Fiction book (1995) -
Jason, how old are you?
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How old are you, young lady?
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How old are you, baby?
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Can you tell me how old are you?
Surface Forms
Morphology
The question 'how old are you' is compositionally built from 'how' (asking degree/extent) + 'old' (age) + 'are you' (addressing the person), so its meaning 'ask someone's age' is directly derivable from the parts. This is a common, cross-linguistically familiar interrogative pattern, making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The question how old are you comes from the simple image of asking how many years someone has, like counting birthday candles to see how old they are. So, it is used 'to ask someone about their age'.