"Ему тридцать три года."
Translation:He is thirty three years old.
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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. :/
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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?
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?
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
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
But, It seems people learn it differently though. Here > "summer" explanation
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.
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.
I've had a Russian native speaker pronounce this and it still does not register as correct. Other things I mispronounce and the program accepts it. Faulty programming, as far as I'm concerned.
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 .........
Gor the past 3 months I have been getting Russian native speakers to say the numbers and it is always rejected. I always flag the problem saying the answer should be accepted. The programming should be corrected.
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Duo admins, please fix speech exercises with numbers, or remove them from the course. It's impossible to pass them. The only way to get through is to click "Can't talk right now" (or whatever it is exactly) so that it turns off the microphone for an hour.
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That is exactly the solution. If you really want to learn to speak Russian you are on the wrong platform.
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.
This is a stuck record...i have tried months to say this and i guess i must speak as if i am a native Russian speaker, which i am not-!- otherwise i would not be trying to learn from you!!!
