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Learn how to ask about someone's age
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Marḥaban ǧamīʿan, ʾanā Carole! Hi everybody! I’m Carole. |
Welcome to ArabicPod101.com’s Al-ʿarabiyyah fi ṯalāṯi daqāʾiq. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Arabic. |
As we’ve explained before, sentences in Arabic do not always include verbs; the sentence can be complete with two nouns or pronouns. The first noun is usually the subject and the second noun informs and describes the first one. |
In this lesson, we will use this to talk about your age. |
It’s normal for young people in Arab countries to ask each other’s age. Of course, it might be risky to ask people over 25! |
If someone asks you Kam ʿumruka? it means “How old are you?” |
Kam is a particle indicating or asking about the quantity: “how much?” |
ʿumruka means “your age” |
[slowly] Kam ʿumruka? |
For a woman, it would be: Kam ʿumruki? |
[slowly] Kam ʿumruki? |
As you can see, there is no verb in this sentence again. Now you have to answer with your age, which is your chance to practice the numbers you learned again! |
To answer the question, you can say ʿumrī + number like ʿumrī sittatun waʿišrūn, which means “My age is 26”. You can also say ʿumrī sittatun waʿišrūna sanah which means “I am 26 years old”. |
sanah is literally “year” |
In both cases, no verb is used but both sentences are considered complete grammatically. Please refer back to lessons 6 and 7 to review the rules for numbers. |
Here are some examples. |
“I am 18” -> ʿumrī ṯamāniyata ʿašara sanah |
“I am 20” -> ʿumrī ʿišrūna sanah |
“I am 25” -> ʿumrī ḫamsatun wa ʿišrūna sanah |
“I am 40” -> ʿumrī arbaʿūna sanah |
ʿumrī means “my age is”. |
ʾarbaʿūna is “40”. We learned about numbers back in lessons 6 and 7. |
And then we just add sanah at the end, which means “years”. |
[slowly] ʿumrī ʾarbaʿūna sanah |
Now it’s time for Carole’s Tips. |
Sometimes young people do not ask about your age directly, but rather ask questions about your education and work and assume your age from the conversation. |
In this lesson, we learned how to talk about your age. Next time we’ll learn how to talk about possessions. |
I'll be waiting for you with the details in the next Al-ʿarabiyyah fi ṯalāṯi daqāʾiq. |
ʾarākum fi al-ʾumṯūlati al-qādimah! |
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