3

If I need to ask someone about their birth order, what question is usually used? Let's say I do not ask how many children his family has first.

What is your birth order? or Which child are you in your family?

Eilia
  • 5,469
Narazana
  • 153
  • May be helpful: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/20773/framing-a-question-to-which-you-reply-with-i-am-the-third-born-in-my-family and https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100216090328AAzltem – Eilia Jun 16 '15 at 06:30
  • "My filial order in my family is 3. I have two sisters who are elder to me, and a younger brother." (https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111028143221AAnHqOP) – Eilia Jun 16 '15 at 06:38
  • Your particular question seems to be answered in the following link: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/20773/framing-a-question-to-which-you-reply-with-i-am-the-third-born-in-my-family – herisson Jun 16 '15 at 07:01
  • Where are you in birth order? A bit formalistic, but most succinct. – bib Jun 16 '15 at 10:52
  • Here's a workaround for the awkwardness the more direct form of the question: How many older siblings do you have? – JeffSahol Jun 16 '15 at 15:12
  • @JeffSahol which is exactly the same one suggested by Wesley May. If I say I have two elder brothers, you might interpret that as me being the youngest of three, but I could have six younger siblings. – Mari-Lou A Jun 16 '15 at 15:14
  • @Andrew Leach there must be a mistake there is no way that this question is a duplicate of the one mentioned. My mother had ten siblings I don't think anyone in the world ever asked her What ordinal number reflects the position of the number five in the set of prime numbers? ! And that was the second highest voted answer. – Mari-Lou A Jun 16 '15 at 16:01
  • OK... but bear in mind that duplicate questions provide the answer. They are not exactly the same question (those get merged). There are scores of questions like "How do I ask what number president Bill Clinton was?" – Andrew Leach Jun 16 '15 at 16:09
  • @AndrewLeach I'm befuddled, where is the answer to this question. Are you suggesting that: "What ordinal number are you in the sibling set?" is a natural-sounding question, to ask a person? Or perhaps What is the rank of 5 in prime number series? could be rephrased as What is your rank in your family?? – Mari-Lou A Jun 16 '15 at 16:34
  • There's now a flag, which another mod will deal with. There may be better duplicates (you're welcome to suggest any) but this question is a duplicate. – Andrew Leach Jun 16 '15 at 16:37

2 Answers2

2

FTR I'm going to go ahead an give you a useful answer, which I believe is correct.

There is no good phrase for that in English.

Quite simply, it's one of those things in English where we all know there's no good clear phrase for it -- what you normally do is bumbling out something such as "So, like, you have older brothers - sisters I mean - or young or what, were you the oldest, youngest, or in between?" or something like "where do you fit in your family, oldest, youngest or?" ("Fitting in" with your family is confusing as it has other connotations, but you sometimes hear that.)

There's just no good clear way to say it.

Note that the many many many tediously linked answers contain ...... not one good suggestion. Not scientific proof, but a excellent pointer that, in fact, there's no such term here.

It's extremely important to remember that the "no" answer to SWRs is, uhh, very important - and you should remember that.

Fattie
  • 10,520
  • The OP is not asking for a single term, or word, but how to formulate the question. Personally I find the OP's "What is your birth order?" to be quite clear and unambiguous, although slightly off-putting. – Mari-Lou A Jun 16 '15 at 15:12
  • I do like the "Where do you fit in your family?" That sounds very natural. – Mari-Lou A Jun 16 '15 at 15:13
  • Right. It's always a fascinating observation that there are some things in English, for which there is just no good phrase. Very unItalian :) – Fattie Jun 16 '15 at 15:55
  • The other way round, there are many lexical gaps in the Italian language that's why they borrow so much from English, and sometimes when there's no need at all. – Mari-Lou A Jun 16 '15 at 18:26
  • I agree that there's no good phrase in English. Usually, I find that most Asian countries have direct question for this (at least where I've been to). – Narazana Jun 17 '15 at 04:45
1

I would normally ask "How many older siblings do you have?"

Wesley May
  • 167
  • 1
    And if he or she is the third eldest of ten children? You'll know the person has two older siblings but nothing else, unless she or he volunteers that information. – Mari-Lou A Jun 16 '15 at 11:38
  • The question is asking about the person's position in the birth order, not about the total number of siblings. – Wesley May Jun 16 '15 at 15:03
  • Wes, you misunderstand ML's point – Fattie Jun 16 '15 at 15:05