"Elle a presque soixante ans."

Translation: She is almost sixty.

[Kitsoon]

She is close to sixty.

[BastouXII]

Now accepted. [2016-02-22]

[Evan_Bowflex]

why not "she has 60 years"

[DianaM]

Because that is excessively literal - it's a poor translation because it does not convey the intended meaning of the original..

In English we say, "She is sixty" or "She is sixty years old"; in French, they don't use "is" when talking about age, they use the verb "avoir" - "has". That's just how it is.

[JerryTo2]

But what if we really wanted to say she has almost 60 years? Like when someone asked how much time does she have. Would we still use the same sentence structure?

[BastouXII]

You could say it the same way or Il lui reste presque 60 ans ("she has almost 60 years left").

[WildSage]

I've reported that as well. People use has all the time in the US though usually about cars. "She has 20 good years on her"

[n6zs]

Your example would never be understood as referring to someone's age. English speakers, when referring to someone's age, do not use "has", but "is".

[lvhuyen]

in which case "presque" will be translated to "about"?

[juju91350]

when you are about to do something
ex: I am about to go out.
you can translate it by "presque" "être sur le point de" is also a synonym of "presque" in these cases

[DianaM]

Good point. But in this case, "about sixty" could mean 58, 61....somewhere in there, while "nearly sixty" means "not sixty yet".

[lvhuyen]

Thanks.
So how does French say "She is about sixty"?

[DianaM]

Hmmm. Perhaps "Elle a environ soixante ans." or "Elle a à peu près soixante ans."

Francophone opinions?

[juju91350]

"Elle a environ soixante ans." or "Elle a à peu près soixante ans." have the same meaning in french

[juju91350]

but in this case 'elle a presque soixante ans' works too, all these sentences are synonym, don't make it complicated
If you want to say 'not sixty yet' the good translation is 'elle n'a pas encore soixante ans'.
Bonus: she is about to be 60 could be said by "elle va sur ses 60 ans" but this is mostly spoken and not written, and not very precise.

[Karliitje]

Why was she is about sixty years old not correct?

[n6zs]

There is some overlap between "almost" (nearly, but not quite) and "about" (approximately, roughly) but the terms are not always interchangeable. Use the meaning of "presque" which is "almost" (here).

[dshoup40]

Why can't the word "years" be added to the accepted answer. The French word for it is there.

[n6zs]

In English, one says "sixty" or "sixty years old" or "sixty years of age", but not "she is almost sixty years". Translate the French expression into the correct and natural English expression.