14歳です
jūyonsai desu
To say I am fourteen in Japanese, say 14歳です (jūyonsai desu).
14歳です is the standard polite way to state your age to strangers or in formal settings. The full form with the pronoun is 私は14歳です, using watashi, a neutral word for I.
What does it mean word for word?
14 is fourteen (juuyon), 歳 (sai) marks years of age and です (desu) makes the sentence polite.
Which one should you use?
俺は14歳だ。 is a casual version with ore, a word for I used by males that is more casual than watashi.
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
Replacing desu with da gives 14歳だ, which is informal and used among friends.
How do you pronounce it?
It is romanized jūyonsai desu.
Did you know?
- In Japan, the traditional way of counting age was the kazuetoshi system, where a child was considered one year old at birth and turned a year older every New Year's Day.
- If a person wants to avoid the bluntness of 14歳です, they might use 14歳になります to imply they are 'becoming' fourteen, which is a common way to soften the statement.
- The word ore used in the casual form 俺は14歳だ is so strongly associated with masculine identity that it can sound aggressively assertive or overly confident if used by a young teenager in the wrong company.
Examples in context
- 私は14歳です。watashi wa juuyonsai desu.I am fourteen years old.
- ちょうど14歳です。choudo juuyonsai desu.I am exactly fourteen years old.
Example conversation
Kenta and Yui are introducing themselves at a school event.
- 健太 Kenta健太です。14歳です。kenta desu. juuyonsai desu.I'm Kenta. I'm fourteen years old.
- 結衣 Yui結衣です。私も14歳です。yui desu. watashi mo juuyonsai desu.I'm Yui. I am fourteen years old, too.
- 健太 Kenta同じ年ですね。onaji toshi desu ne.We are the same age, aren't we?
- 結衣 Yuiはい、そうです。hai, sou desu.Yes, that's right.
