this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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In the languages of my ancestors, for example, if someone was 14 years old, they would be "14 år gammal" in Swedish (14 years old) and "14 Jahre alt" in German (14 years old), but in Italian, they would say "ho 14 anni" (I have 14 years).

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[–] hoagecko@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 hours ago

In Japanese, the English phrase “12 years old” is written as ‘12歳’ or “12才”.

Both “歳” and ‘才’ are read as “sai,” and “歳” is the standard form.

As an exception, since children in elementary education typically learn the character “歳” before “才,” it is sometimes common to write ages as “12才” during the period after learning ‘才’ but before learning “歳.”

reference:

「年齢」を「年令」、「○歳」を「○才」と書くことがありますが、正式にはどうなのでしょうか?|漢字文化資料館 (Article in Japanese)

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 5 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

岁 "sui" in Mandarin. The word itself is a quantity, so you put the number before it, like 二十二岁 for 22 years old. When you're describing the age of a person, that person is, not has, that quantity. So "I am 22" would be 我是二十二岁 ("wo shi er shi er sui").

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 hours ago

in order to get it right I'd have to burp and fart and shit my pants

[–] CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago

Мне 15 лет

Russians use the dative case to indicate age along with the word summers, instead of the words “years” (I suspect you could hypothetically form a plural from the word for year, год, but I don’t think I’ve ever encountered it — лет, literally summers, is presented to language learners as the correct plural for year) and the present tense of the verb “to be” is elided most contexts, so most literally you would render it in English “to me fifteen summers”.

[–] undeffeined@lemmy.ml 4 points 21 hours ago

Tenho catorze anos. In Portuguese. Spelled out the number to make it weirder 😃

[–] Soulphite@reddthat.com 6 points 23 hours ago

In my mother tongue, English, I specifically and annoyingly tell people how many trips I have taken around Sol. That number represents my age.

[–] Txopi@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago

In Basque language we say "14 urte ditut" (literally "I am 14 years"). Some people say "14 urte dauzkat" (literally "I have 14 years"), probably due to Spanish language influence.

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I'm from the North of England and we say "aye! t'was onna night most un'nartual, when good folk did pull down the shutters and bring their children reet close and 'uddle themselves away, for they couldn't rightly say if they wus hearing the howling of t'wind, the shrieking orra newborn, or the wailin of the beast, in this very valley [x] years/moons ago" and I think that's beautiful.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Spanish: Tengo catorce anos == I have fourteen buttholes

And this is why you shouldn’t skimp on your tildes.

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wait until you realize where the word verano comes from

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

... sin permiso.

[–] Zeusz13@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

In Hungarian you would say "14 éves vagyok"

"vagyok" means "I am"

"éves" is "év" meaning "year" + "es" which is a suffix turning nouns into adjectives.

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

So kind of like saying "I am 14 yeared" (the same way a shirt with stripes is a striped shirt)? That's actually kind of interesting.

[–] Zeusz13@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

Yeah, pretty much

[–] Object@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It's just <Number>살 for us. The way the age is counted is a bit different. If you were using the standard way of calculating the age, you add 만 in front of it.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

A few years ago, iirc, the Korean government instructed people to stop using the traditional system and to use the international system instead. Has that had much of an effect in practice, or are people largely ignoring it? Or do you think it's something that younger generations will pick up more over time while older people continue using the traditional system? (This last option being sort of what happened in Australia when we transitioned to metric through the '70s.)

Also, what happens to someone born on 1 January? Are they born du sal, and thus the youngest of their sal, or born han sal and remain han sal for a whole year?

[–] terminal@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

Government docs use the international style for age, but in normal conversations people assume you are using traditional age unless otherwise specified.

[–] Object@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Too socially prevalent. Most people know about this change, but they still use the old one. Anything official are now using the standard age, though.

Anyone born on Jan 1st stays one year old for the whole year since people gain age every time the year changes. This does mean that a person can be born on Dec 31st, and be two year old next day.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 3 points 1 day ago

I suppose then, for any child born around 00:10 on 1 January, there might be some pressure to encourage the doctor to write the birth certificate as something more like 23:50 on 31 December? Because of the social prestige with being older?

Or maybe the opposite, since being physically older than your peers is correlated with better academic and sporting performance?

[–] Quilotoa@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

In Plattdeutsch, it's Johr ik bün veerten Johr oold

[–] gerryflap@feddit.nl 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Might as well be a Dutch dialect at this point haha. It's funny how the platt/plat dialects are kinda similar.

[–] Quilotoa@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago

It did originate in the "low" countries around the Netherlands and Germany. The Mennonites took it with them when they left the Netherlands in the 1500s and it traveled with them to Prussia, then to Ukraine, and then to the Americas. I imagine it changes a little during those 500 years.

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In my first language (English) a 14-year-old would day "I am 14 years old" which means "I am 14 years old"

In my distant second language (Spanish) they would say "tengo 14 años" which, like Italian, means "I have 14 years"

[–] EvilBit@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Don’t forget the common colloquial “I’m 14”.

[–] Skunk@jlai.lu 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

In French it’s like in Italian, 'j’ai quatorze ans' (I have 14 years).

Sometimes people are saying their next age, 'je vais sur mes quinze ans' (I am going to my 15 years).

Ich bin 14 Jahre alt

мне 14 лет

[–] Achyu@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

വയസ്സ്(Vayassu), പ്രായം(Prayam) in Malayalam

വയസ്സ്/പ്രായം 15 ആയ ആൾ(15 vayassu/praayam aaya) -> Person aged 15

Not sure if the transliteration is phonetically correct. And it seems formal. Maybe someone else can provide a better reply

[–] cl4p_tp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 hours ago

I expected one of these. 😁

[–] oculi@anarchist.nexus 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

"عمري ١٤ سنة" for Arabic, with your example.

(Pronounced ´umri arba´ ta´shar sana)

[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Aw i wanted to write that (i just learned it) 😄

[–] oculi@anarchist.nexus 2 points 1 day ago

😉 technically my romanization + version of it is a more regional-esque thing, so you could post another version with another dialect!

[–] 200ok@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago
[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

In Hebrew you say "I am the child of X years"

אני בן\בת ארבע עשרה

Also the language is horrifically gendered. It's not my first language, but I know a bit