saying ages: contar vs tener

Question

Hello.

When I studied the conjuagtions of 'contar' and found the following example and its translation.

Él contaba con diecisiete años y ella era un poco mayor. --> He was 17 years old and she was a little bit older.

I'd like to ask whether the expression using 'contar' to say ages is common or not. Or, do most Spanish use 'tener'? If so, the sentence above can be changed as 'Tuvo diecisiete años'?. And the latter is more appropriate?

Thank you for your help in advance.^^

Answer 1

I think that "tener" is by far the most common way of telling someone's age.

When speaking of age in the past you must use the imperfect tense--

Tenía cincuenta años cuando lo conocí. (He was 50 when I met him)

Answer 2

It seems like the Spanish speaking people that I know use "tener" more often as in "tiene diecisiete años" but, it also seems logical that you could say that he had counted seventeen years. And in this case, of course, the imperfect because it is a description (age) of someone in the past.