Learn how to ask about someone's age
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| Sziasztok, Lívia vagyok! Hi everybody! I’m Livia. |
| Welcome to HungarianPod101.com’s “Magyar nyelvleckék három percben”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Hungarian. |
| In the last two lessons, we learned the main usages of the verb van, which means “to be” in Hungarian. |
| In this lesson, we are going to learn one more use of this verb, to talk about your age. |
| It’s normal for young people in Hungary to ask each other’s age. Of course, it might be risky to ask people over 25! |
| In formal Hungarian, people usually ask you Mikor született? “When were you born?”. |
| [slowly] Mikor született? |
| In informal Hungarian however, people just say “How old are you?” which is Hány éves vagy? |
| [slowly] Hány éves vagy? |
| Now you have to answer with your age! You can use the verb vagyok, just like when talking about the place you’re at. |
| Here are some examples. |
| “I am 18” - Tizennyolc éves vagyok. |
| “I am 20” - Húsz éves vagyok. |
| “I am 25” - Huszonöt éves vagyok. |
| “I am 40” - Negyven éves vagyok. |
| Can you see what’s happening here? We start with the number. Tizennyolc is “18”. We learned about numbers back in lessons 6 and 7. |
| Next, we say éves, meaning “.... years old.” |
| And then we just add vagyok. |
| [slowly] Tizennyolc éves vagyok. |
| With the answer, there is no difference between the formal and the informal form, you can use it in both situations. |
| Sometimes Hungarian people won’t ask your age directly, but instead, will ask your birth year. |
| You heard the formal version of this question already, but here is the informal version. Mikor születtél? |
| [slowly] Mikor születtél? |
| This literally means “When were you born?” You just have to answer using the two last digits of your birth year + the -ban or -ben suffix, indicating place and in this case, time. |
| Nyolcvankilenc-ben means “in 89.” |
| Now it’s time for Livia’s Tips. |
| Were you born in the year 2000? Sorry, you can’t say that you are of zero-zero. You have to say the entire year. Kétezer-ben. |
| In this lesson, we learned how to talk about your age and birthdate using "van". Next time we’ll learn how to use this verb for talking about possessions. Do you know how to ask someone about things they own? |
| I'll be waiting for you with the answer in the next Magyar nyelvleckék három percben lesson. Sziasztok! |
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