 |
|
| Share / Tweet / Pin Me! | |
Âges et anniversaires
One of the confusing things for beginning French students is that age is expressed with avoir (to have), rather than être (to be).
Par exemple …
| Quel âge avez-vous ? | How old are you? | |
| J’ai 27 ans. | I’m 27 (years old). |
Note that ans is always required in French; you can’t say J’ai 27.
Expression: aller sur ses ___ ans = to be going on ___.
| Quel âge a-t-il ? | How old is he? | |
| Il va sur ses 4 ans. | He’s going on 4 (years old), He’ll soon be 4. |
Age Ranges
French has nouns and adjectives for a person whose age falls within a specific decade, from 20s all the way to 110 and up.
| 20s | vingtenaire | (rare) |
| 30s | trentenaire | |
| 40s | quadragénaire quadra |
(informal apocope) |
| 50s | quinquagénaire quinqua |
(informal apocope) |
| 60s | sexagénaire | |
| 70s | septuagénaire | |
| 80s | octogénaire | |
| 90s | nonagénaire | |
| 100+ | centenaire | |
| 110+ | supercentenaire, | super-centenaire |
Par exemple…
| Un octogénaire a écrit ce livre. | An eighty-year-old wrote this book. | |
| Ma fille est quadragénaire. | My daughter is in her 40s. |
You can be a little more specific, funnily enough, with approximate numbers:
| Paul a une vingtaine d’années. | Paul is about 20. | |
| Alix a une cinquantaine d’années. | Alix is about 50. |
These can be further modified with jeune and avancé, but note that the construction changes to the verb être plus dans, as if the age is a place:
| Anny est dans la jeune trentaine. | Anny is in her early 30s. | |
| Marc est dans la quarantaine avancée. | Marc is in his late 40s. |
Birthdays and Anniversaries
In French, un anniversaire is equivalent to both "birthday" and "anniversary."
| Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire ? C’est quand, ton anniversaire ? |
When is your birthday? | |
| C’est notre anniversaire de mariage. | It’s our wedding anniversary. |
Verbs and expressions
Milestones
Some* French nouns for milestone (decades, centuries, millenia) anniversaries of important events** are the same as their age-range counterparts:
| 20th | vingtenaire | (rare) |
| 30th | trentenaire | |
| 40th | quarantenaire | * |
| 50th | cinquantenaire | * |
| 60th | soixantenaire | * |
| 70th | septantenaire | * (Belgium, Switzerland) |
| 80th | huitantenaire octantenaire |
* (Switzerland) |
| 90th | nonantenaire | * (Belgium, Switzerland) |
| 100th | centenaire | |
| 150th | sesquicentenaire | (rare) |
| 200th | bicentenaire | |
| 300th | tricentenaire | |
| 400th | quadricentenaire | |
| 1000th | millénaire | |
| 2000th | bimillénaire | |
| 3000th | trimillénaire |
* Note the difference between these milestones and their equivalent age ranges.
** Important events = newsworthy anniversaries such as that of a celebrity’s death, not a personal event like a wedding anniversary.
70th, 80th, and 90th only exist in places that use the matching numbers (see details at the end of Numbers 60 to 99).
You can also use ordinal numbers for milestones. For example, "the 30th anniversary of his death" can be expressed as le trentenaire de sa mort or le trentième anniversaire de sa mort.
Age-Old Vocabulary
| jeune | young | vieux, âgé | old | |
| la jeunesse | youth | la vieillesse | old age | |
| rajeunir | to look/feel younger | vieillir | to age, get older | |
| naître | to be born | mourir | to die |
Related lessons and features
- Asking questions
- Avoir conjugations
- Celebratory expressions
- Dates
- Family
- Gifts for French lovers
- Numbers
- Ton, ses, and other possessive adjectives
- Zodiac signs
Share / Tweet / Pin Me!
This free website is created with love and a great deal of work.