Learn how to ask about someone's age
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Здрасти, аз съм Ива. Hi everybody! I’m Iva. |
| Welcome to BulgarianPod101.com’s “Бълграски в три минути”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Bulgarian. |
| In the last two lessons, we learned the main usages of the verb съм, which means “to be” in Bulgarian. |
| In this lesson, we are going to learn one more basic usage of this verb. We will use this verb to talk about your age. |
| It’s normal for young people in Bulgaria to ask each other’s age. But of course, it might be risky to ask it to people over 25! |
| If someone asks you На колко години сте? just know that it means “How old are you?” in formal Bulgarian. |
| [slowly] На колко години сте? |
| In informal Bulgarian, it would be На колко години си? |
| [slowly] На колко години си? |
| Now you have to answer with your age! In Bulgarian you use the verb “to be”, съм. |
| Here are some examples. |
| “I am 18” - Аз съм на осемнадесет години. |
| “I am 20” - Аз съм на двадесет години. |
| “I am 25” - Аз съм на двадесет и пет години. |
| “I am 40” - Аз съм на четиридесет години. |
| Can you see what is happening here? We start with sentence Аз съм на осемнадесет години, “I am 18” |
| Аз means “I”. |
| Съм is the first person singular form of the verb “to be”. |
| На means “of”. Something like “of how many years”. |
| We learned about numbers back in lessons 6 and 7. Here we have the number 18, осемнадесет. |
| And then we just add години, which means “years”. |
| [slowly] Аз съм на осемнадесет години |
| Sometimes Bulgarian people won’t ask your age directly, but instead, will ask your birth date. |
| You might hear this question in an informal situation- |
| Кога си роден? |
| [slowly] Кога си роден? |
| This literally means “When are you born?” |
| You just have to answer using the two last figures of your birth year- |
| Роден съм през 89-та. which literally means “I am born in 89.” |
| Now it’s time for Iva’s Insights. |
| 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. Роден съм през две хилядната. |
| In this lesson, we learned how to talk about your age and birthdate using съм. But do you know how to say that your birthday is today? You will have to use the verb имам which means “to have”. We’ll learn more about how to use this verb when talking about possessions in the next lesson. |
| I'll be waiting for you in the next Български в три минути lesson. |
| До скоро! |
Comments
Hide