Learn how to ask about someone's age
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Hallo almal! Ek is Annemarie. Hi everybody! I’m Annemarie. Welcome to AfrikaansPod101.com’s Afrikaans in 3 minuten, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Afrikaans. |
| In this lesson, you’re going to learn to talk about your age by using the verb is, which means “to be.” |
| It’s normal for young Afrikaans speakers in South Africa to ask each other’s ages. But it might be risky to ask people over 25! |
| If someone asks you Hoe oud is jy? just know that it means “How old are you?” in Afrikaans. |
| [slowly] Hoe oud is jy? |
| Let’s break it down... |
| Hoe oud means “how old” |
| is is the “to be” verb in Afrikaans. Remember, it doesn’t change like the English “is,” “am,” or “are.” |
| Finally we have jy which is the informal way of saying “you.” |
| Hoe oud is jy? |
| Now you have to answer with your age! |
| Here are some examples. |
| “I am 18” is Ek is agttien. |
| “I am 20” is Ek is twintig. |
| “I am 25” is Ek is vyf-en-twintig. |
| “I am 40” is Ek is veertig. |
| and so on. |
| Did you notice the pattern here? Start the sentence with ek is meaning “I am.” Then just say the number of your age. |
| Need to review the numbers? We learned about them back in lessons 6 and 7. |
| Sometimes, Afrikaans speakers add two more words to this sentence to indicate that they are explicitly talking about age and not something else. So you might hear the words jaar oud after the age. This means “years old.” |
| Ek is twintig jaar oud. “I’m 20 years old.” |
| [slowly] Ek is twintig jaar oud. |
| But please pay attention - in Afrikaans, we most often use the singular form of jaar, so we literally say “year old” instead of “years old.” |
| Now it’s time for Annemarie’s Tips. |
| If you are asked your age but don’t want to answer, you can simply smile and say Dit is ‘n geheim. This means “It’s a secret!” |
| [slowly] Dit is ‘n geheim. |
| In this lesson, you've learned how to talk about your age. Next time, you’ll learn how to use the verb het, which means “to have,” to talk about possessions. |
| I'll be waiting for you in the next Afrikaans in 3 minuten lesson. Lekker dag! |
Comments
Hide