"I was born five years ago."

Translation: Я родился пять лет тому назад.

[JouliaKapl]

Я родился пять лет назад и уже изучаю русский язык.

[AlexeiRosc1]

Такой умный!))

[R_Andersson]

Правда?

[Phozzonunnium]

Why is a тому necessary here? Couldn't it be Я родился пять лет назад?

[JanisaChatte]

" Я родился пять лет назад." is accepted now. Thanks for reporting and happy learning! :)

[SeanPatric908907]

And, «Я родился назад пять лет.»? Or is word order important in this case?

[Kaabriel]

I think назад always needs to be in the end. At least when talking about time.

[Die_Lerche]

Yet I am still wondering what's the difference between those two?

[aegray]

I have the same question - The only thing I saw about it in the notes for one section was " «Тому назад» means the same thing but this use is rare in late 20th-century Russian and isn't taught here"

[ramin1981]

Women say "Я родилась" and men say "Я родился" is it correct?

[va-diim]

Correct!

[ramin1981]

Thanks

[kpagcha]

What does тому mean in this sentence?

[freaky_zoid]

it is a form of pronoun "тот" (that), and it's a fixed expression, but it's kind of dated now. пять лет тому назад just means five years ago from this moment.

[R_Andersson]

Спасибо за объяснение!

[P-Code]

Does the word лет come from лето? If so, does "пят лет назад" literally mean "five summers ago"?

[va-diim]

Exactly. You got it! In Russian, numbers of years are:

годы = years (plural, literal)

1 год = 1 year

2, 3, 4 года = 2, 3, 4 years

5-20 лет = 5-20 years

Also, except for 11-14, all numbers that end in 0-9 behave the same way as 0-9. For example, 23 года, 150 лет, 81 год, 55016 лет, but:

11, 12, 13, 14 лет

[P-Code]

Interesting to know! Спасибо!

[stephapus]

I wrote "пять лет тому назад я была родилась" - which (I believe) directly translates into "Five years ago, I was born." Is this incorrect? I understand that I switched a few parts of the sentences around, but I don't think that should have been enough to be marked as incorrect as the meaning is unchanged. Thank you! :)

[megsterftw]

You don't need была here as "was" is included in the verb родилась

[stephapus]

Thank you!

[va-diim]

"-сь" here means "was [myself/herself/himself] born". Otherwise, " родила" would mean "she gave birth [to]..."

[sp.ark]

...лет тому назад... is a narrative literary form of describing events in the past, it is not used to refer to one's own birth.

Я родился пять лет назад sounds much better.

[alkajugl]

I said я родилась and was marked wrong. This is not the first time. But there is nothing in the English sentence to indicate male or female.

[ColeDonnelly]

Why are we using я instead of мне

[AlexeiRosc1]

It's because of the verb "родился" here. Я agrees with it. If you were just going to say "I am 5 years old," then you'd use Мне.

[ColeDonnelly]

But isn't родился reflexive?

[va-diim]

Yes it's reflexive with the -"ся" at the end. Я родился means "I was born." Otherwise, Я родил means "I gave birth to..."

[Scian4]

"He was born in the summer of his twenty-seventh year..."

[Xrayzer]

Ural Mountain high-eeeee, do svidanya....