Talking About Your Age

Learn how to ask about someone's age

Also Appears In: Indonesian in 3-Minute Videos Throwback Thursday

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Halo semuanya, nama saya Fira. Hi everybody! I’m Fira.

Welcome to IndonesianPod101.com’s “Bahasa Indonesia dalam 3 menit”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Indonesian.

In the last lesson, we learned about asking someone’s location.

In this lesson, we are going to learn to talk about your age.

It’s normal for young people in Indonesia to ask each other’s age. Of course, it might be risky to ask it to people over 25!

If someone asks you

Berapa usia kamu sekarang? just know that it means “How old are you now?” in formal Indonesian.

[slowly] Berapa usia kamu sekarang?.

In informal Indonesian, it would be-

Berapa umur kamu sekarang?

[slowly] Berapa umur kamu sekarang?

The only difference is at the word usia and umur. Umur is usually used casually.

Now you have to answer with your age!

Here are some examples. When it’s formal,

“I am 18” - Usia saya 18 tahun.

“I am 20” - Usia saya 20 tahun.

“I am 25” - Usia saya 25 tahun.

“I am 40” - Usia saya 40 tahun.

Usia is for “age”,

Saya could means “I, my, me, or mine”, Delapanbelas is “18”. We learned about numbers back in lessons 6 and 7.

And then we just add Tahun, which means “years”.

Sometimes young Indonesian people won’t ask your age directly, but instead, will ask your birth year.

You might hear this question in an informal situation-

Kamu lahir tahun berapa?

[slowly] Kamu lahir tahun berapa?

This literally means “What year were you born?”

You just have to answer using the two last figures of your birth year-

Aku lahir tahun 84 which literally means “I was born in 84.”

Now it’s time for Fira’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. Aku lahir tahun 2000.

In this lesson, we learned how to talk about your age and birthdate. Next time we’ll learn how to talk about possessions.

I'll be waiting for you in the next Bahasa Indonesia dalam 3 menit.

Sampai jumpa lagi!

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