Learn how to ask about someone's age
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| Salut, je m'appelle Ingrid. Hi everybody! I’m Ingrid. |
| Welcome to FrenchPod101.com’s “Le français en 3 minutes”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn French. |
| In the last two lessons, we learned the main usages of the verb être, which means “to be” in French. |
| In this lesson, we are going to learn one basic usage of the verb avoir, which means “to have”. Today we will use this verb to talk about your age. |
| It’s normal for young people in France to ask each other’s age. Of course, it might be risky to ask it to people over 25! |
| If someone asks you Quel âge avez-vous? just know that it means “How old are you?” in formal French. |
| [slowly] Quel âge avez-vous?.) |
| In informal French, it would be: Quel âge as-tu? |
| [slowly] Quel âge as-tu? |
| Now you have to answer with your age! In French you use the verb avoir, to have. |
| [E screen] |
| Here are some examples. |
| “I am 18” - J’ai dix-huit ans. |
| “I am 20” - J’ai vingt ans. |
| “I am 25” - J’ai vingt-cinq ans. |
| “I am 40” - J’ai quarante ans etc. |
| Can you see what is happening here? We start with sentence J’ai dix-huit ans, “I am 18” |
| J’ai means “I have”. This is the conjugated version of avoir. |
| Dix-huit is “18”. We learned about numbers back in lessons 6 and 7. |
| And then we just add Ans, which means “years”. |
| [slowly] J’ai dix-huit ans. |
| Sometimes young French people won’t ask your age directly, but instead, will ask your birth year. |
| You might hear this question in an informal situation: |
| Tu es de quelle année? |
| [slowly] Tu es de quelle année? |
| This literally means “Of which year are you?” |
| You just have to answer using the two last figures of your birth year: |
| Je suis de quatre-vingt neuf which literally means “I am of 89.” |
| Now it’s time for Ingrid’s Insights. |
| Were you born in the year 2000? Sorry, you can’t say that you are of zero-zero. You have to say the entire year. Je suis de 2000. |
| In this lesson, we learned how to talk about your age and birthdate using avoir. Next time we’ll learn how to use this verb for talking about possessions. |
| I'll be waiting for you with the answer in the next Le français en 3 minutes lesson. |
| A bientôt! |
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