number of glasses?( about eye weakness)

[moonlike]

Hi
If someone is wearing glasses and you want to ask how weak her eyesight is, what question should we ask? Can we just ask 'how weak your eyes are?'. If it's appropriate then what can be the answer? I don't know if I could explain myself well or not. Each person's eye weakness is different from the others and that's a number that distinguish this difference. I'm looking for the question and the answer about it.

Thanks a lot.

 

[emsr2d2]

What's your prescription?
It's minus 1.75.

 

[Jaskin]

hi,
Please note I'm not a teacher nor a native speaker;

The technical term is dioptre. It refers to the power/strength of the lens/es in glasses.
so the question would be something like :
How strong are your glasses?
I wear glasses myself but even if you asked me what is the strength of my glasses I wouldn't be able to answer it.
The only thing that I remember is that for shortsightedness(BrE)/ nearsightness(AmE) the number is negative.
and it's positive for longshightness (BrE)/farsightness(AmE).

cheers;

 

[SoothingDave]

Visual acuity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the US, we would ask what their vision was and expect an answer of 20/x, where 20/20 is "normal vision."

 

[Rover_KE]

I can only imagine an optician being curious enough to ask a question like that in casual conversation rather than something like 'Do you wear glasses all the time?' 'Do you just need them for reading?' 'Are they useful for night-driving?'

Rover
(not an optometrist)

 

[Winwin2011]

Visual acuity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the US, we would ask what their vision was and expect an answer of 20/x, where 20/20 is "normal vision."

Does it mean that we can say "What's your vision" in American English?

Thanks.

 

[SoothingDave]

Does it mean that we can say "What's your vision" in American English?

Thanks.

You could. But like Rover said, most people are not going to ask about such detail and I imagine most people who wear glasses probably don't know the numbers. They know if they are nearsighted or farsighted.

 

[Winwin2011]

You could. But like Rover said, most people are not going to ask about such detail and I imagine most people who wear glasses probably don't know the numbers. They know if they are nearsighted or farsighted.

Thanks SoothingDave.

Are short-sighted and nearsighted interchangeable? I suppose American use "nearsighted" whereas British use "short-sighted" Am I correct?

 

[SoothingDave]

Thanks SoothingDave.

Are short-sighted and nearsighted interchangeable? I suppose American use "nearsighted" whereas British use "short-sighted" Am I correct?

That is correct. We only use "short-sighted" metaphorically. Like when someone doesn't plan ahead or foresee certain problems, we can call them "short-sighted."

 

[Raymott]

Myopia is "short/near-sighted", 'Longsightedness' is hypermetropia.
Many people understand 'myopic', but not the other, since 'myopic' is occasionally used metaphorically.

 

[emsr2d2]

I think people who wear disposable contact lenses are far more likely to know their prescription. Every morning in the bathroom, I am faced with my large pile of daily disposable contact lenses, each one clearly marked with the strength. It's probably true that people who wear glasses and don't have frequent eye tests will probably put their prescription paperwork in a drawer somewhere and promptly forget what the numbers were.