How do you ask about someone's eyesight

Question

Hi allIf someone is near-sighted, and you want to know how bad it is, how do you ask?I've heard:What's your eye prescription?Could someone list all the possible questions that I can use to ask about this?What's the most common one? And the most technical one?Also how do you answer these question?Thanks very much

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Most common:

Q: How bad is your eyesight?
A: Pretty bad. I know it's you only because I recognize your voice.

I don't know any technical ones.

Chenyincheng · Answer

Mister MicawberMost common:Q: How bad is your eyesight?A: Pretty bad. I know it's you only because I recognize your voice.I don't know any technical ones.

Lol That's a good one!

But, in English speaking countries, don't people use numbers, as a measurement, such as +1.0 or -1.5...etc, to be more specific? Coz "pretty bad" sounds pretty blurry to me.

In my country, near-sightedness is so common that it's usual to ask people how bad their eyesight is. And when asked, we repond with numbers to be specific.

Mister Micawber · Answer

No, we don't have such bad eyesight as you do, I guess.  Anyway, I don't know any numbers except 20/20.

Sandy Ho · Answer

What is your vision?

Also you can ask the following questions instead.

How strong are your glasses?

What is the power of your glasses?

What is the strength of your glasses?

Chenyincheng · Answer

Mister MicawberNo, we don't have such bad eyesight as you do, I guess. Anyway, I don't know any numbers except 20/20.

And what does 20/20 mean? How do you use it in a statement?

Thanks

BarbaraPA · Answer

I'd be very surprised if most Americans could translate a prescription for eyeglasses to a sense of how bad the person's vision is.

20/20 is perfect vision. I personally an 20/400. I'd be legally blind, except that with my contacts, I see 20/20. That means that someone with perfect vision standing 400 feet from something sees with the clarity that I see at 20. At least, that's how it was explained to me once.

If you ask someone "what's your vision" here, you'll hear "Oh, 20/150, but I'm 20/20 with my contacts in" or something like that.

It would be an usual question, though.

Chenyincheng · Answer

Grammar GeekI'd be very surprised if most Americans could translate a prescription for eyeglasses to a sense of how bad the person's vision is.20/20 is perfect vision. I personally an 20/400. I'd be legally blind, except that with my contacts, I see 20/20. That means that someone with perfect vision standing 400 feet from something sees with the clarity that I see at 20. At least, that's how it was explained to me once. If you ask someone "what's your vision" here, you'll hear "Oh, 20/150, but I'm 20/20 with my contacts in" or something like that.It would be an usual question, though.

Thanks loads Grammar Geek!

So native speakers do ask this kind of questions then? What kinds of questions may elicit answers like "I'm 20/20."? I've done some search on google and found a few ways of asking this. Can you verify if they are authentic English?

1. What's your vision? (obviously this is genuine English because you used it)

2. What's (How's) your eyesight?

3. What's your eye prescription?

4. What's your eyeglass prescription?

5. What's the power (strength) of your glasses? (Thanks, Sandy Ho, for your reply!

)

Are there more ways of asking this?

Also I came across the words "myopia" and "diopter" while doing my search. In what contexts are those words used?

When I answer to questions like "What's your vision?", can I say:

1. It's 20/20 in my left (eye) and 20/40 in my right.

2. My left eye is 20/20 and my right is 20/40.

Are there more ways of answering this?

I'm sorry that I've asked an awful lot of questions. I really want to get to the bottom of this and I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to answer those questions.

Clive · Answer

Hi,

I wear glasses to read.

If you asked me what my prescription was, I couldn't tell you. I'd have to put on my glasses and find it.

Clive

Chenyincheng · Answer

Clive Hi, I wear glasses to read.If you asked me what my prescription was, I couldn't tell you. I'd have to put on my glasses and find it. Clive

lol Point taken! I understand that native English speakers don't care about your eyeglass prescription as your eyesight isn't as bad as ours. A student of mine asked me how to say this in English and I couldn't answer his question and I had to tell him that I don't know. It was kind of embarrassing for me. So here I am trying to find out the answer.

Anonymous · Answer

If you are already on the topic of glasses you would say:

What perscription do you have?

What perscription are you?

If you just want to ask someone unexpectedly then you would say:

What perscription are your glasses?

How do you ask about someone's eyesight

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