"Ему тридцать три года."

Translation: He is thirty three years old.

[sara_scout]

How do I know whether to use лет or год when expressing age? I remember back in my Russian class being very confused about that. :/

[neltasar]

один год

два года | три года | четыре года

пять лет | семь лет | восемь лет | девять лет | десять лет | одиннадцать лет | ....

-

двадцать один год

двадцать два года | ....

двадцать пять лет | ...

Do you see the pattern?

[sara_scout]

Ohhh okay, I think I get it.

один год - nominative masc. singular

два/три/четыре года - genitive masc. singular

But what's the deal with лет? Does it ever decline? Or is it already in nominative/genitive plural?

[rebmaboss]

Лет is the genitive plural of "summer," so you could be 33 summers old :) I don't know why лет is used for years, though

[wizwisdom]

Wow, yup, "лет" is the "genitive plural" of "лето". But, at the same time "лет" is also the "genitive plural" of "год". Not native though, but I think that's why it's used to express one's age . xD

год: english explanation

год: russian explanation

But, It seems people learn it differently though. Here >
"summer" explanation

[AlejandroMolina9]

I still don't understand, can someone explain it more simply?

[QurtQurt]

Just put лет when the previous word ends with a consonant. Пять лет. Семь лет... - There are two consonants here at the ends - т(ть) and м(мь), thus you should put лет, not года(годы). Один год is out of this rule.

[detailaddict]

So why don't they explain this in the T&N? I saw that for some reason 2, 3 and 4 (and higher numbers ending with these) are "special" somehow but there's no mention of using год instead of лет.

[insgnfcntpwn]

What about:
двадцать
тридцать
etc.
?

[ShukurluKamran]

It is also лет.

[builder959277]

Right?!?

[dreamloomer]

Он Иисус Христос?

[Bob20020]

Наш герой :)

[deactivated user]

ТРИДЦАТЬ ТРИ ПОЛОСКИ

[languagepassion]

Are the words let and goda synonyms?

[Kundoo]

Technically, they are the same word. "Лет" is the plural form of "года" (which in turn is the genitive case of "год"). Obviously it's an irregular noun.
Here we use "года" because of how Russian numerals work. After numbers ending with "один" we use the nominative singular form. After numbers ending with "два", "три" or "четыре" we use the genitive singular. And after all others the genitive plural is used.

[KungJohn1]

why Ему instead of oн?

[NoMoreWords]

It's more like, "he has 33 years"

[GuilhermeH615416]

Because when talking about age you use Dative Pronouns

[Antixity]

How does one pronounce года? Stress in o or a?

[Sourick]

Goh-da.

[Antixity]

So stress is on the "o", correct? ГОда? Or in English spelling, "GOH-duh"?

[Sourick]

It's on the О in года.

[Antixity]

Thank you!

[Adamanskii]

All the audio lessons featuring numbers do not work . Annoying . Oh and why is Duo claiming to support free education but pressuring to join PLUS now?! Counterintuitive if I've ever .........

[RajendraWa6]

I'm screaming at the App and it won't recognize what I'm saying