Learn how to ask about someone's age
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| Hallo, ich heiße Laura. Hi everybody! I’m Laura. |
| Welcome to GermanPod101.com’s “Deutsch in 3 Minuten”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn German. |
| In the last two lessons, we learned the main usages of the verb sein, which means “to be” in German. |
| Today we will use this verb to talk about your age. |
| It’s normal for young people in Germany to ask each other’s age. Of course, it might be risky to ask it to people over 25! |
| If someone asks you Wie alt sind Sie? just know that it means “How old are you?” in formal German. |
| [slowly] Wie alt sind Sie? |
| In informal German, it would be: |
| Wie alt bist du? |
| [slowly] Wie alt bist du? |
| Now you have to answer with your age! |
| Here are some examples. |
| “I am 18” - Ich bin achtzehn. |
| “I am 20” - Ich bin zwanzig. |
| “I am 25” - Ich bin fünfundzwanzig. |
| “I am 40” - Ich bin vierzig. |
| Can you see what is happening here? We start with sentence Ich bin, which means “I am”. This is the conjugated version of sein. |
| Achtzehn is “18”. We learned about numbers back in lessons 6 and 7. |
| [slowly] Ich bin achtzehn. |
| Sometimes young German people won’t ask your age directly, but instead, will ask your birth year. |
| You might hear this question in an informal situation: |
| Welcher Jahrgang bist du? |
| [slowly] Welcher Jahrgang bist du? |
| This literally means “Of which year are you?” |
| You just have to answer using the two last figures of your birth year: |
| Ich bin Jahrgang neunundachtzig “I am of the year 89.” |
| Now it’s time for Laura’s Insights. |
| If You are estimating somebody’s age, you say: |
| “Du bist ist um die dreißig. “You‘re around 30“. |
| “Du bist um die fünfundzwanzig“, You’re around 25 and so on. |
| You are not liable to overestimate the other’s age but as concrete as necessary at the same time. |
| In this lesson, we learned how to talk about your age and birth date using the verb sein. Next time we’ll learn how to use haben, the verb to have for talking about possessions. |
| I'll be waiting for you in the next Deutsch in 3 Minuten lesson. |
| Bis bald! |
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