Age: how old are you?
To ask someone’s age, say كَم عُمْرُك؟ (kam ʿumruk?). It means “how much is your age?”, and it is the same for a man and a woman. To answer, say عُمْرِي (ʿumrī, “my age”), then the number, then سَنَة (sana, “year”): عُمْرِي عِشْرُون سَنَة is “I am twenty years old”. For another person, put the name after عُمْر: عُمْر سَلْمَى ثَلَاثُون سَنَة. With سَنَة most numbers change their form, so in this lesson we use only the full tens, عِشْرُون to تِسْعُون. They do not change, and سَنَة stays singular after them. There is no verb “to be” in these sentences.
| Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|
| كَم عُمْرُك؟ | How old are you? |
| عُمْرِي عِشْرُون سَنَة | I am twenty years old. |
| عُمْرِي ثَلَاثُون سَنَة | I am thirty years old. |
| عُمْر كَرِيم أَرْبَعُون سَنَة | Karim is forty years old. |
كَم عُمْرُك؟
عُمْرِي عِشْرُون سَنَة. وَأَنْتَ؟
عُمْرِي ثَلَاثُون سَنَة.
جَيِّد!
Family interview. Ask three people كَم عُمْرُك؟ (a friend, a neighbour, a relative) and write each age in Arabic words, rounded to the nearest full ten, for example عُمْر عَلِيّ ثَلَاثُون سَنَة. Then write your own age with عُمْرِي in the same way. Finally write the age of your mother and your father with عُمْر أُمِّي and عُمْر أَبِي.
…
عُمْر يُوسُف سَبْعُون سَنَة