How old are you? in Russian
In this lesson, you will learn to ask “How old are you?” in Russian and to reply to such question.
Questions
To ask how old someone is, use the following formula:
сколько + personal pronoun in the Dative case + лет
Examples:
Ско́лько тебе́ лет?
How old are you? (informal)
Ско́лько вам лет?
How old are you? (formal)
Ско́лько ему́ лет?
How old is he?
Ско́лько ей лет?
How old is she?
Answers
To answer such question, use the following formula:
noun or pronoun in the Dative case + number + год/года/лет
Год, года and лет are the forms on the word год which means year. Here is how to pick the correct form:
| Last digit of the age | Form of the word год |
|---|---|
| 1 | год |
| from 2 to 4 | года |
| 0 or from 5 to 9 | лет |
If you are no familiar with Russian numbers, you can learn them here: Russian numbers.
Examples:
Мне два́дцать лет.
I’m twenty years old.
Ему́ оди́н год.
He is one year old.
Ей два го́да.
She is two (three, four) years.
Мне пять лет.
I’m five years old.
Тебе́ шесть лет.
You are six years old. (informal)
Вам три́дцать оди́н год.
You are thirty-one years old. (formal)
You can also completely omit the word years:
Мне ско́ро три́дцать.
I’ll be thirty soon.
Моя́ ба́бушка о́чень ста́рая, ей девяно́сто четы́ре.
My grandmother is very old, she is 94 years old.
Он пожило́й челове́к, ему́ уже́ за пятьдеся́т.
He is an elderly man, he is over fifty.
More advanced examples
To be able to compose answers like below by yourself, you need to study the ordinal Russian numbers, declension of cardinal numbers, Present, Past and Future tenses in Russian.
Ей о́коло сорока́.
She is about forty.
Она́ о́чень молода́я, ей ещё нет и двадцати́.
She is very young, she is not even twenty.
Вчера́ ему испо́лнилось три́дцать пять лет.
Yesterday he was 35 years old.
За́втра мне исполня́ется два́дцать два го́да.
Tomorrow I’ll be 22 years.
Ему пошёл оди́ннадцатый год.
He is in his 11th year.
Practice the vocabulary of this lesson with the audio file.
The offline version of this lesson is available here