Asking how old someone is in German required exactly the same construction as in English. It is however reliant on the student knowing the different forms of the irregular verb "sein" (= "to be") which you should have learned by now!

Vocabulary 1: How old are you? Singular wie alt bin ich? (How old am I?) wie alt bist du? wie alt sind Sie? (How old are you?) wie alt ist er/sie? (How old is he/she?) Plural wie alt sind wir? (How old are we?) wie alt seid ihr? wie alt sind Sie? (How old are you?) wie alt sind sie? (How old are they?)

And you respond to this question by using the following constructions:

Vocabulary 2: I am 20 years old Singular ich bin 20 Jahre alt (I am 20 years old) du bist 20 Jahre alt Sie sind 20 Jahre alt (You are 20 years old) er ist 20 Jahre alt sie ist 20 Jahre alt (He is 20 years old) (She is 20 years old) Plural wir sind 20 Jahre alt (We are 20 years old) ihr seid 20 Jahre alt Sie sind 20 Jahre alt (You are 20 years old) sie sind 20 Jahre alt (They are 20 years old)

Different types of questions
In the previous chapter we looked at word order in questions where there are specific question words. If you remember, the question word comes first, followed by the verb and then the subject of the sentence:

• "Wie geht es Ihnen?" ("How are you?")
• "Woher kommst du?" ("Where do you come from?")
• "Wo wohnen Sie?" ("Where do you live?")

We have seen from the previous conversation however that if there is no specific question word in the clause, you should put the verb first, followed by the subject of the sentence:

• "Sind Sie verheiratet?" ("Are you married?")
• "Haben Sie Kinder?" ("Do you have children?")
• "Darf ich mich verabschieden?" ("May I say goodbye?")

Present tense of the verb "haben"
The German verb "haben" (= "to have") is another common German verb which is irregular. The "-b-" of the stem disappears in both the "du" and the "er/sie" forms of the present tense:

Grammar 1: The verb "haben" (= to have) Singular   ich habe I have du hast Sie haben You have (informal/formal)  er/sie/es hat He/she/it has Plural   wir haben We have ihr habt Sie haben You have (informal/formal)  sie haben They have

 Chapter 3.3: Conversation: Im Studio (2)

 Nach oben

 Print This Page