# Age (years): to have / to be



## inorez

With the exception of English, the other languages I have any knowledge of use the verb "to have" (or an alternative method of denoting possession) to express a person's age in years.

How is it expressed in your language, and which other languages use "to be"?

Thanks.

PS. I did a search to see if this question had already been asked before in the forum, but couldn't find anything. If I happened to have missed it, however, please feel free to delete this thread...


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## tFighterPilot

In Hebrew you'd say the person is the son\daughter of the number of years. For example /aní ben 25/ "I'm a son of 25"


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## arielipi

Hebrew:
we use the "to be" version: אני בן 30 ani ben 30, i am 30 (years old).
am is omitted in hebrew.


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## Maroseika

In *Russian * just Dative is used and no verb: 
Мне 20 лет (to me 20 years).
Ему 3 месяца (to him 3 months).


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## sound shift

German uses "to be": "Ich bin zwanzig Jahre alt" = "I am twenty".
Dutch uses "to be": "Ik ben twintig jaar oud" = "I am twenty".


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## apmoy70

Greek uses to be:

*«Είμαι 43 χρόνων»* ['ime 43 'xronon]; «είμαι» ['ime] --> 1st person sing. present indicative of v. to be 
_I am 43 yo_


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## vianie

Maroseika said:


> In *Russian * just Dative is used and no verb:
> Мне 20 лет (to me 20 years).
> Ему 3 месяца (to him 3 months).



That's the model *Czech* uses, just with the auxiliary verb:
_Je mi třicet let._ Less often also _Je mně třicet let_ is heard, alternatively _Mně je třicet let_, but never the "Polish" word order with the weak pronoun in the front _Mi je třicet let.
_Jsou mu tři měsíce. _Jemu jsou tři měsíce._

In *Slovak* it's the same as in *Polish*, both use the possessive verb: _Mám tridsať rokov. Mam trzydzieści lat.
_


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## Youngfun

Italian uses "to have":
*(Io) ho 22 anni* = "I have 22 years".

In Chinese it's person + age, without any word in between.
*我22岁* = "Me 22 years".
Idiomatically, people often add "this year":
*我今年22岁* = "Me this year 22 years".
I don't know how Chinese grammar analyzes this kind of sentence.


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## Treaty

In Persian there are three structures:
او بیست سال (سن) دارد _u bist sāl (sen) dārad._
She has twenty years (of age).

او بیست ساله است _u bist sāle ast._
She is twenty-year-old.

او بیست سالش است _u bist s__ā__l-a_š_ ast._
She her is twenty years. 

Actually, the last one is an old structure for "to have". In official Persian it is only used for "age", while in some other dialect it's still used instead of "to have".


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## francisgranada

Hungarian uses "to be":

*20 éves vagyok *

év - year
éves - an adjective from "év"
vagyok - (I) am


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## ahmedcowon

*In Arabic*, we use the preposition "عند" which is the equivalent of the verb "to have":

أنا عندي ٢٥ سنة /ana 3indi 25 sana/ = I have 25 years

هو عنده ٣٠ سنة /huwa 3indahu 30 sana/ = He has 30 years



tFighterPilot said:


> In Hebrew you'd say the person is the son\daughter of the number of years. For example /aní ben 25/ "I'm a son of 25"



we use that also in Arabic: أنا ابن الـ٢٥ /ana 'bnu al-25/ = I'm a son of the 25


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## bibax

I can add that in Czech and Russian the expression "x years (months, days, etc.)" is the subject of the sentence:

Jsou mu 3 měsíce (Ему 3 месяца) = 3 months are to him _(in Russian the copula is missing);_

Thus it is different from the English "he is 3 month(s) old".


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## arielipi

ahmedcowon said:


> *In Arabic*, we use the preposition "عند" which is the equivalent of the verb "to have":
> 
> أنا عندي ٢٥ سنة /ana 3indi 25 sana/ = I have 25 years
> 
> هو عنده ٣٠ سنة /huwa 3indahu 30 sana/ = He has 30 years
> 
> 
> 
> we use that also in Arabic: أنا ابن الـ٢٥ /ana 'bnu al-25/ = I'm a son of the 25




It doesnt really mean it like that actually, its simply stating the age with stating the gender.


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## AutumnOwl

*Swedish:
*There is two ways to express a person's age in Swedish:

_Are:_
_Han är 25_ (år gammal) - he is 25 (years old)- answers the question "How old are you?"
_Hon blir 50 nästa år_ - she will be 50 next year
_Min katt är tio år _- my cat is ten years
Huset är hundra år gammalt - the house is 100 years old
(_är/blir_ - are/is/will be can be used for other objects than humans)

_Have filled/added:_
Har du fyllt 18 (år)? - have you filled 18 (years)? - answers "How many years have you (filled)"?
_Hon fyllde 25 _(år) senast - she has filled 25 (år) last (birthday)
_Han fyller 30 nästa vecka_ (he will fill 30 next week)
(_fylla/har fyllt/kommer att fylla_ - fill/have filled/will fill - used about people, very rarely about other things, sometimes used about a city)

We often use the expression _fylla år_ (fill/add years) when talking about birthdays,_ När fyller du år?_ instead of _När är din födelsedag?_ (when is your birthday) or when talking about a person's age.


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## mataripis

inorez said:


> With the exception of English, the other languages I have any knowledge of use the verb "to have" (or an alternative method of denoting possession) to express a person's age in years.
> 
> How is it expressed in your language, and which other languages use "to be"?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> PS. I did a search to see if this question had already been asked before in the forum, but couldn't find anything. If I happened to have missed it, however, please feel free to delete this thread...


In Tagalog ' To have ' is " magkaroon" or "mayroon" and 'to be' is "ay". So the Tagalog for 1.) I am 10 year old.= ako ay sampung taong gulang.(the case when asked by someone) but when saying it voluntarily (sampung taong gulang ako).2.) I have 10 years of age.= Mayroon na akong sampung taong gulang. and 3.) to be 16 in Tagalog is "magiging labing anim".


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## Annibleu

In *Spanish* is also like in Italian and French, as far as my knowledge, we use "To have" X amount of years 
_Yo tengo 23 años
J'ai 23 ans

_Italian was given before so I did not write the example


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## tFighterPilot

arielipi said:


> It doesnt really mean it like that actually, its simply stating the age with stating the gender.


That's how you see it as a native speaker. I do too of course. If we look at it in a purely grammatical way, though, that is what it means.


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## ancalimon

In Turkish we say:

32 yaşın da yım

I am at 32 age


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## arielipi

tFighterPilot said:


> That's how you see it as a native speaker. I do too of course. If we look at it in a purely grammatical way, though, that is what it means.



The question isnt about literal translation,rather about how we say and its meaning

EDIT: a proof to what im saying would be:
מלאו לי 25 שנים
not stating the gender but saying how old i am; ani ben is simply adding the gender.


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## Codinome Shlomo

Annibleu said:


> In *Spanish* is also like in Italian and French, as far as my knowledge, we use "To have" X amount of years
> _Yo tengo 23 años
> J'ai 23 ans
> 
> _Italian was given before so I did not write the example



Same in Portuguese.
We say "Tenho X anos" ("I have X amount of years").


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## Annibleu

Condinome, I know Portuguese and Spanish are close cousins but I wonder what would be the pronounciation of "Tenho"? Is nh like ñ in Spanish??


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## tFighterPilot

Annibleu said:


> Condinome, I know Portuguese and Spanish are close cousins but I wonder what would be the pronounciation of "Tenho"? Is nh like ñ in Spanish??


Sometimes you can find answers to questions like these on Wiktionary http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tenho


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## Codinome Shlomo

Annibleu said:


> Condinome, I know Portuguese and Spanish are close cousins but I wonder what would be the pronounciation of "Tenho"? Is nh like ñ in Spanish??



It actually depends on where the speaker is from, but most Portuguese speakers pronounce it like *ñ* in Spanish.
There are people who pronounce it like a nasal diphthong, for example: conhecer -> coẽcer (being ~ a symbol of nasalization), but this is very regional.
This was discussed in this topic: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2167991, some time ago.


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## Ventian blind

Hi all,
in Hindi/Urdu we have two ways to say this.

1. Mai 25 saal (or varsh) kaa hu. Literally: I am of 25 years. ( In this expression ki (instead of kaa) will be used by feminine gender).

2. Meri umar(or aayu) 25 saal (or varsh) hai. Literally : My age is 25 years.

So in Hindi/Urdu we use the verb 'to be' = hai


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## Ventian blind

Hi all,
in Hindi/Urdu we have two ways to say this.

1. Mai 25 saal (or varsh) kaa hu. Literally: I am of 25 years. ( In this expression ki (instead of kaa) will be used by feminine gender).

2. Meri umar(or aayu) 25 saal (or varsh) hai. Literally : My age is 25 years.


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## HYCHIN

Youngfun said:


> In Chinese it's person + age, without any word in between.
> *我22岁* = "Me 22 years".
> Idiomatically, people often add "this year":
> *我今年22岁* = "Me this year 22 years".
> I don't know how Chinese grammar analyzes this kind of sentence.



*我22岁* = "Me 22 years".
Noun phrase can be use directly as the predicate (predicative nominal). No verb is needed.

*我今年22岁* = "Me this year 22 years".
Noun phrase of time can be the subject. *今年22岁* has a Subj-Pred structure.
A Subj-Pred structure can itself be a predicate. The noun 我 is added in front to be the subject.

to have 有
to be 是

*「你是不是30岁？」「不是。」* "Are you 30?" "No, I'm not." (I may be 21 or 38 or other numbers, but not 30.)
*「你有沒有30岁？」「沒有。」* "Do you have 30 years of age?" "No, I don't." (I am younger than 30. I have fewer years of age.)
*「你有沒有30岁？」「有。」* "Do you have 30 years of age?" "Yes, I do." (I am at least 30. I have at least 30 years of age.)


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## Ёж!

Hi,


> *今年22岁* has a Subj-Pred structure.


How do I translate *今年22岁*? I do not understand the role of the subject *今年*… '_This year_ *is* _such that 22 years [of something] [have passed_]'?

Thank you!


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## sakvaka

*Finnish*

_Hän on 25-vuotias.*_ lit. He is 25-yeared.
_Hän on 25 vuotta vanha.*_ lit. He is 25 years old.
_Hän on 25 vuoden ikäinen.**_ lit. He is 25 years' aged.

* 25 = kaksikymmentäviisi
** 25 = kahdenkymmenenviiden, _gen.
_
With "täyttää" 'fill':

_Hän täyttää ensi vuonna 50 (vuotta). _He's turning 50 the next year.
_Milloin täytät vuosia?_ When is your birthday? (_cf. Swedish När fyller du år?_)


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## kloie

in serbian

He is 25 years old=On ima 25 godina


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## HYCHIN

Ёж! said:


> How do I translate *今年22岁*? I do not understand the role of the subject *今年*… '_This year_ *is* _such that 22 years [of something] [have passed_]'?



Before you want a _translation_, you should note that:
1. 
The relationship between subject and predicate in Chinese is not less strict than it is in English.
You do not accept "this year is 22 years old" in English because "this year" doesn't fulfil the requirement of a subject.
However, in Chinese a subject can be phrases to indicate time and places, so 今年 does fulfil the requirement.
2.
A Subj-Pred structure do not always form a complete sentence.

I suggest a translation for *今年22岁*:
"... (is) 22 years old this year."

Anyway, the sentence 我今年22岁 consists of 3 noun phrases and no verb.


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## Ёж!

Thank you. I understand. Do your refer to this classification of basic grammatical structures that I found, or maybe to a similar one? If yes, then why *今年22岁 *must not be considered a subordinated structure, with *今年 *modifying, decorating and limiting* 22岁* by telling when [someone is] 22 years (old)?

Thank you very much!


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## 涼宮

Youngfun said:


> .
> 
> In Chinese it's person + age, without any word in between.
> *我22岁* = "Me 22 years".
> Idiomatically, people often add "this year":



It's similar to JP, no verb is used: pronoun + topic/subject marker + number + age

I'm 20= (私は)二十歳 (speakers would usually add a copula at the end for formality or for afirmation, either です or だ, but they're optional). The personal pronoun can also be omitted if the context is clear.


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## HYCHIN

Ёж! said:


> ... why *今年22岁 *must not be considered a subordinated structure, with *今年 *modifying, decorating and limiting* 22岁* by telling when [someone is] 22 years (old)?



This can answer your question. (But it is in Chinese, without any translation, even the linguistic terms.)

Perhaps because Chinese words lack morphological changes, structures cannot be identified purely syntactically.
So, semantic relationship are important in identifying different structures.
Please see this picture (
) and compare the semantic relationships implied by the two structures.


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## Ёж!

Thank you very much! The picture helps; "this year's twenty two years" are indeed non-sensical. I'll try to succeed in understanding the page that you linked to as well, it's interesting.


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## Nizo

_Both ways are acceptable in Esperanto.  To the question "Kiom da jaroj vi havas?" (literally, "how-many of years you have?") the response would be "Mi havas kvindek (50) jarojn."  To the question "Kiomjara vi estas?" (which basically means "how-many-yeared you are?"), the answer would be "Mi estas kvindekjara" ("I am 50-yeared" -- yes, I know "yeared" doesn't make sense in English; it's an adjective in Esperanto, so I kind of made up the English word to give the general idea)._


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## puny_god

With the languages I know, it's almost all "to be" except one
English: to be
German: to be
Filipino: to be
Japanese: to be
French: have

Which is probably why I find French particularly difficult...I am progressing quite slowly...^^;;


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## SuperXW

Chinese:
我25岁。(I, 25 years old.)
我是25岁。(I AM 25 years old.)
我有25岁了。(I DO HAVE 25 years old.)

I recall a friend said "Chinese language is poor in grammar." Well, this could be the case. To be positive, I call it "more flexible" instead of "poor".  Anyway, there are plenty of ways to say "I'm 25 years old" (with different styles and emphasis.) in Chinese. All are correct.


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## Stoggler

Dutch follows the most other Germanic languages by using "to be"


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## Sempervirens

Generalmente in italiano si usa il verbo *avere*: *Ho *trent'anni ( magari!)  Anche la forma con il verbo *essere *non è inusuale: *Sono *trentenne.  Questo tipo di aggettivo può essere sostantivato ed in tal caso vuole l'articolo: Sono un trentenne. 

Quanto sopra limitatamente alla specifica domanda, senza tenere di conto le altre decine e passa di espressioni ruotanti al medesimo concetto. 

Saluti

S.V


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## sound shift

Stoggler said:


> Dutch follows the most other Germanic languages by using "to be"


Dat klopt. Ik ben zevenenvijftig jaar oud.


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## biala

arielipi said:


> Hebrew:
> we use the "to be" version: אני בן 30 ani ben 30, i am 30 (years old).
> am is omitted in hebrew.



בן זה לא בדיוק "להיות" גם אם זו המשמעות. במקרה של גיל, המובן הוא יותר בעל תכונה או מידה מסויימת , כמו שימושים אחרים של בן.


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## إسكندراني

In Arabic it's usually phrased as:
He reaches بلغ
His age is سنه
But in the Egyptian dialect we say:
he has X years. عنده س سنة


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## spindlemoss

Welsh uses "be".

*Dw i'n saith* [am I-PARTICLE seven] "I'm seven"

*Mae e'n hanner cant* [is he-PARTICLE half hundred] "He's fifty"

For age, no matter who's described, we use feminine numbers, as *blwydd* "year of age" is a feminine noun.

*Mae hi'n ddwy* [is she-PARTICLE two (fem.)] "She's two"

*Roedd e'n bedair* [was he-PARTICLE four (fem.)] "He was four"


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## 810senior

涼宮 said:


> It's similar to JP, no verb is used: pronoun + topic/subject marker + number + age
> 
> I'm 20= (私は)二十歳 (speakers would usually add a copula at the end for formality or for afirmation, either です or だ, but they're optional). The personal pronoun can also be omitted if the context is clear.


When it comes to the age in the future, you can use _nar-u_ to become instead e.g. 田中さんは*今年で*49歳*になる*。_Tanaka-san-wa kotoshi-de 49(yonjuu-kyuu)sai-ni na-ru_(Tanaka will be 49 years old this year) lit. Tanaka *(will) become* 49 years old *with this year*.


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## 123xyz

Macedonian:

*Имам* 25 години - I *have* 25 years.

There are no alternatives with year-based adjectives or the copula.


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## KalAlbè

*Haitian Creole:*
Have_.
Mwen gen 20 tan_ = I have 20 years.


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## Ectab

In Arabic there are several ways to express one's age, the most common is using the word 3umur عمر (age) 
عمري عشرون سنة
I am twenty years old, lit: my age is twenty years

other ways like using bin\bint (like hebrew), balagha\yablughu verb: to reach, 3inda at\have, dhuu of.


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## Floridsdorfer

*All *Romanic languages use to have.

You have already mentioned Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Therefore I may add:
*Catalan*: *tinc *(variant: *tenc*) vint anys
*Sardinian tenzo *(variants: *tengio *or *apo*) bint'annos
*Romanian*: *am* douazeci de ani
*Corsican *and *Gallurese*: *agghju *vint'anni
*Sassarese*: *aggiu *vent'anni
*Sicilian *is also like that, and so on...


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## Sardokan1.0

Floridsdorfer said:


> *All *Romanic languages use to have.
> 
> You have already mentioned Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
> 
> Therefore I may add:
> *Catalan*: *tinc *(regionally also *tenc*) vint anys
> *Sardinian tenzo *(variants: *tengio *or *apo*) bint'annos
> *Romanian*: *am* douazeci de ani
> *Corsican *and *Gallurese*: *agghju *vint'anni
> *Sassarese*: *aggiu *vent'anni
> *Sicilian *is also like that, and so on...




in Sardinian Logudorese we use also another variant beside Tenzo or Happo, we use also the verb Jùghere (to bring towards / to bring with you) as synonymous of *to have
*
_*Tenzo vint'annos
Happo vint'annos
Jutto vint'annos*_

all of them could be translated as "I have 20 years"

p.s.
the pronounce of the *J* is highly variable in the Logudorese-Nuorese speaking area, where I live the J is pronounced like a Y, but if I go 25km south they pronounce it like in French, while going 25-30km to south-west they pronounce it like a soft G, in general nearly all north-western Sardinia pronounce it like a Y


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## Floridsdorfer

Sardokan1.0 said:


> in Sardinian Logudorese we use also another variant beside Tenzo or Happo, we use also the verb Jùghere (to bring towards / to bring with you) as synonymous of *to have
> *
> _*Tenzo vint'annos
> Happo vint'annos
> Jutto vint'annos*_
> 
> all of them could be translated as "I have 20 years"
> 
> p.s.
> the pronounce of the *J* is highly variable in the Logudorese-Nuorese speaking area, where I live the J is pronounced like a Y, but if I go 25km south they pronounce it like in French, while going 25-30km to south-west they pronounce it like a soft G, in general nearly all north-western Sardinia pronounce it like a Y



*Jùghere *is also used in the transition variants between Logudorese and Campidanese (those variants from where they based the _Common Sardinian Language_...)
These variants are more like Logudorese indeed, but they have Campidanese elements too. You will find _jùghere _almost until *Oristano*.
But if you use it as a complete synonym of *tènnere* it could be a bit weird there. It generally means *to carry *or *to take something away*, so they never use it for the age.
And also in this area you can hear both pronunciations, like a *y (yard) *or like a *j (jingle)*.
It depends basically on the position of the word in the sentence, like a lot of Sardinian pronunciation features...
The first person is not *juto* (or jutto), like in Logudoro, but *jutzo *instead.


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## Sardokan1.0

Floridsdorfer said:


> *Jùghere *is also used in the transition variants between Logudorese and Campidanese (those variants from where they based the _Common Sardinian Language_...)
> These variants are more like Logudorese indeed, but they have Campidanese elements too. You will find _jùghere _almost until *Oristano*.
> But if you use it as a complete synonym of *tènnere* it could be a bit weird there. It generally means *to carry *or *to take something away*, so they never use it for the age.
> And also in this area you can hear both pronunciations, like a *y (yard) *or like a *j (jingle)*.
> It depends basically on the position of the word in the sentence, like a lot of Sardinian pronunciation features...
> The first person is not *juto* (or jutto), like in Logudoro, but *jutzo *instead.



the same verb is also used in the Nuorese area "jùchere" pronounced with Y, the first person instead changes from Jutto to Juco; the verb is perhaps related to the Latin "Jungere" (Junghere using the classical pronounce) which means something like "to join, to reunite, to carry"


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## ilocas2

Serbian:

Ima 1, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91, 101, 121... godinu
Ima 2, 3, 4, 22, 23, 24, 32, 33, 34, 42, 43, 44, 52, 53, 54, 62, 63, 64, 72, 73, 74, 82, 83, 84, 92, 93, 94, 102, 103, 104, 122, 123... godine
Ima 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120... godina


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