Learn how to ask about someone's age
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| Introduction |
| Eric: Welcome to 3-Minute Hebrew Season 1, Lesson 8 - Talking About Your Age. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask someone's age and to say yours in Hebrew. |
| Body |
| Eric: Here's the informal way to ask 'How old are you?' in Hebrew. |
| Yaara: [Normal] בן כמה אתה?(ben kama ata?) |
| Eric: First is a phrase meaning 'How old' |
| Yaara: [Normal] בן כמה [Slow] בן כמה (ben kama) |
| Eric: Last is the pronoun meaning 'You' |
| Yaara: [Normal] אתה [Slow] אתה(ata) |
| Eric: Listen again to the informal phrase meaning 'How old are you?' |
| Yaara: [Slow] בן כמה אתה? [Normal] בן כמה אתה? |
| Eric: Ok, now let's look at the formal way to say 'How old are you?' |
| Yaara: [Normal] אפשר לשאול לגילך?(efshar lish'ol legil'kha?) |
| Eric: First is an adverb meaning 'Possible' |
| Yaara: [Normal] אפשר [Slow] אפשר (efshar) |
| Eric: Next is the verb meaning 'to Ask' |
| Yaara: [Normal] לשאול [Slow] לשאול(lish'ol) |
| Eric: Last is the noun meaning 'your age' |
| Yaara: [Normal] לגילך [Slow] לגילך(legilkha) |
| Eric: Listen again to the formal phrase meaning 'How old are you?' |
| Yaara: [Slow] אפשר לשאול לגילך? [Normal] אפשר לשאול לגילך? |
| Eric: Next we’ll take a look at how to say 'I’m 17.' |
| Yaara: [Normal] אני בן שבע-עשרה.(ani ben shva-esre.) |
| Eric: First is a pronoun meaning 'I' |
| Yaara: [Normal] אני [Slow] אני(ani) |
| Eric: Last is the phrase meaning '17 years old' |
| Yaara: [Normal] בן שבע עשרה [Slow] בן שבע עשרה(ben shva-esre) |
| Eric: Listen again to the phrase meaning 'I’m 17.' |
| Yaara: [Slow] אני בן שבע-עשרה. [Normal] אני בן שבע-עשרה. |
| Eric: Finally, we have a way to say 'I prefer not to say.' |
| Yaara: [Normal] אני מעדיף לא להגיד.(ani ma'adif lo lehagid.) |
| Eric: First is a pronoun meaning 'I' |
| Yaara: [Normal] אני [Slow] אני(ani) |
| Eric: Next is the verb meaning 'Prefer' |
| Yaara: [Normal] מעדיף [Slow] מעדיף(ma'adif) |
| Eric: Next is the adverb meaning 'No' |
| Yaara: [Normal] לא [Slow] לא(lo) |
| Eric: Last is the verb meaning 'to say' |
| Yaara: [Normal] להגיד [Slow] להגיד(lehagid) |
| Eric: Listen again to the phrase meaning 'I prefer not to say.' |
| Yaara: [Slow] אני מעדיף לא להגיד. [Normal] אני מעדיף לא להגיד. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Eric: Now it's time for a quick cultural insight. |
| Yaara: In more formal situations, it’s common to guess one’s age by asking if he or she is a university student or working after graduation and so on. University students’ ages in Israel are different than in other countries - mostly it varies between 20-25 years old. So keep that in mind! |
Outro |
|---|
| Eric: And that’s all for this lesson. Don’t forget to check out the lesson notes, and we’ll see you in the next lesson! |
| Yaara: להתראות |
16 Comments
HideHi Listeners! How old are you?
Shalom Pedro,
When viewing it on a desktop, you will see a 1x button when playing any of our videos or audios! 😉
Kind regards,
Levente (לבנטה)
Team HebrewPod101.com
where can i slow down the hebrew audio
Hi Samuel Santos,
Thanks for posting and sharing your work! Well done!
A few small corrections:
בן כמה אני?
מָה לְגִילְך - this is not a valid phrase. One would simply ask : בן כמה אתה? / בת כמה את?
כשנולדתי מדינת ישראל *הייתה* בת ארבע
Please feel free to let us know if anything is yet unclear 👍
Best,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
😎
שָׁלוֹם!
להגיד משהו בעברית:
(to say something in hebrew...)
בן כמה אני?
מָה לְגִילְךִ
mah lguilKi?.../what is my age?
כשנולדתי מדינת ישראל היית בת ארבע
(When I was born the State of Israel was 4 years old)
...😄
Hi Orsi,
Thanks for sharing your phrases!
Well written! The second version "אפשר לשאול לגילך" is quite official, and wouldn't be usually used in a regular meeting situation, but it is perfectly correct. 👍
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
?בת כמה את? / אפשר לשאול לגילךְ
.אני בת שלושים
Hi PedroO,
Thank you for posting your question!
Yes, "לגילי" will be the way to conjugate "age" to "me". We could use it as in the following exanple: "לטפס לפסגת הגבעה זה הישג גדול יחסית לגילי" - (climbing to the pick of the hill is a great achievement for my age)
Happy to assist!
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
To conjugate לגיל in the first person to express my age, לגילי adding a yod would be correct?
Any help appreciated
Pedro
Hi PedroO,
Thanks for commenting.
Good question. I'm actually not sure I can give you an answer about it, as in many cases you can use either of these options... ל, בשביל and על מנת are all used to describe a purpose, when "על מנת" is considered a little fancier and found mostly in the written language.
To make this a little harder 😅 - one could also use the word "כדי" that carries a similar meaning to בשביל, which is "in order to...".
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
I have seen at least three translations for the word for. When trying to use them in Hebrew I dont know which to use.
Can you give me hint?
Pedro
ל בשביל על