j'ai… ans
To say I am blank years old in French, use j'ai… ans, putting your age in the gap.
j'ai… ans is how French speakers state their age. The number goes between j'ai and ans, the word for years.
What does it mean word for word?
j'ai means I have and ans means years. Literally the phrase says I have so many years, not I am so many years old.
How does it change in a sentence?
French uses the verb avoir, to have, for age rather than the verb to be. The word ans must be included at the end to complete the expression.
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers often use the verb to be when stating their age in French. Use avoir instead, and never leave out ans.
Did you know?
- In French, the way you state your age is grammatically identical to how you describe being hungry j'ai faim or thirsty j'ai soif. In these cases, the feeling is treated as an object you possess rather than a state you are in.
- If you encounter the phrase âgé de in a book or a poem, it uses the verb 'to be' just like English. However, using this phrase to state your own age in a normal conversation would sound unnaturally stiff to a native speaker.
- The contraction j'ai is a result of a linguistic rule to avoid hiatus, which is when two vowel sounds clash.
Examples in context
- J'ai trente ans.I am thirty years old.
- Je suis âgé(e) de cinquante ans.I am fifty years old.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries j'ai, CC BY-SA 4.0.
