Asking someone's age There are several expressions to ask someone's age. That which I am most familiar with is “他几岁？”. However, I am informed that this can only be used for children (I think the problem is the 几， which implies a small number). How can I ask someone's age if they are an adult?  Or perhaps asking how old someone was when something happened? 

For example:


How old is he (e.g. your father) now?
How old was she when the accident happened?
How old are you? (say, in the hospital, a nurse might ask a patient)
There are several ways to ask someone's age and they vary from neutral to very polite. "他几岁" implies that the answer is within 1-9 range, since 几 should not be used for numbers greater than 9. 

As for other ways to ask the age question (all of them apply to adults):


你多大? - neutral
您多大年纪? - polite, usually used for eldery people
您贵庚？ - very polite and very formal