Learn how to ask about someone's age
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| Ahoj, jmenuju se Veronika. Hi everybody! I am Veronika. |
| Welcome to CzechClass101.com’s “Česky za 3 minuty”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Czech. |
| In the last two lessons, you learned the main usages of the verb být, which means “to be” in Czech. |
| In this lesson, we will use this verb to talk about your age. |
| It’s normal for young people in the Czech Republic to ask each other’s age. Of course, it might be risky to ask people over 25! |
| If someone asks you Kolik je vám let? just know that it means “How old are you?” in formal Czech. |
| [slowly] Kolik je vám let? |
| In informal Czech, it would be: |
| Kolik je ti let? |
| [slowly] Kolik je ti let? |
| Now you have to answer with your age! |
| Here are some examples. |
| “I am 18” is Je mi osmnáct. |
| “I am 20” is Je mi dvacet. |
| “I am 25” is Je mi dvacet pět. |
| “I am 40” is Je mi čtyřicet. |
| Can you see what’s happening here? We start the sentence with je mi, which literally means “it is to me”. In Czech, the age seems “to be happening” to people. |
| Osmnáct is “18”. We learned about numbers back in lessons 6 and 7, so review those if you need to. |
| [slowly] Je mi osmnáct. |
| Sometimes young Czech people won’t ask your age directly, but instead, will ask your birth year. |
| You might hear this question in an informal situation: |
| Který jsi ročník? |
| [slowly] Který jsi ročník? |
| This literally means “Of which year are you?” |
| You just have to answer using the two last figures of your birth year: |
| Jsem ročník osmdesát devět “I am of the year 89.” |
| Now it’s time for Veronika’s Insights. |
| If you are estimating somebody’s age, you can say: |
| “Je ti asi třicet. meaning “You‘re around 30“. or “Je ti asi dvacet pět“, meaning “You’re around 25”, and so on. |
| Try not to overestimate the other person’s age, but do try to get as close as you can at the same time! |
| In this lesson, you learned how to talk about your age and birth date using the verb být. Next time you’ll learn how to use mít, which is the verb “to have” for talking about possessions. |
| I'll be waiting for you in the next Česky za 3 minuty lesson. |
| Ahoj! |
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