order number

[edmondjanet]

This is the 10th birthday of one of my students.Can I ask,
What is the ordinal status of your birthday?
Is this the correct question?
Thank you.

[Raymott]

This is the 10th birthday of one of my students.Can I ask,
What is the ordinal status of your birthday?
Is this the correct question?
Thank you.

No, people would laugh at you. You ask, "How old are you?"
If you are asking about what question must be asked to get the answer, "the 10th", the answer is that there is no set question for this in English. If you want to read extensive discussions about this, search the posts for "whichth".

[Mylanguageclick]

I agree with you. "How old are you?" is the correct question.
Regards.

[edmondjanet]

No, people would laugh at you. You ask, "How old are you?"
If you are asking about what question must be asked to get the answer, "the 10th", the answer is that there is no set question for this in English. If you want to read extensive discussions about this, search the posts for "whichth".

I think I can ask "How old are you" any time to anybody, not only on the occasion of someone's birthday. I think the question that I asked is genuine because some questions always related to my mother tongue(malayalam).
Thank you.

[5jj]

I think I can ask "How old are you" any time to anybody, not only on the occasion of someone's birthday. I think the question that I asked is genuine because some questions always related to my mother tongue(malayalam).
Thank you.

They don't relate to English. As we say frequently in this forum, in one way or another:

There is no natural way in English of asking a 'how manieth...?' question.

We use alternative constructions.

[Ouisch]

If it's a young child (I'd say age 11 or younger), it's not uncommon, upon finding out it's their birthday, to ask "Which birthday is it?" The birthday child will then proudly reply "It's my sixth!" or "I'm nine today!" or somehow reveal their age. However, when a person (particularly a woman) gets older and someone asks her "Which birthday is it?" she'll do her best to avoid replying with her age and will answer instead something like "Oh, it's mine."

You can also include the question in your birthday greeting: "Happy Birthday!! How old are you now?"

[SoothingDave]

Or some will celebrate the 12th anniversary of their 29th birthday.

[Tdol]

I think I can ask "How old are you" any time to anybody, not only on the occasion of someone's birthday. I think the question that I asked is genuine because some questions always related to my mother tongue(malayalam).
Thank you.

You can see some discussions on this issue here:
whichth - UsingEnglish.com ESL Forum - Threads Tagged with whichth