# to fill, fulfill years (age)



## Ilmo

In *Finnish*: Minä täytän 77 vuotta (= I will be 77 years old).
In *Swedish*: Jag kommer att fylla 77 år.
In *Spanish*: Voy a cumplir 77 años.

The verbs used in Finnish and Swedish mean "to fill" and the Spanish verb "cumplir" means more or less "to fulfill" or "to carry out".

Only in English there is no special verb for persons celebrating their birthdays (I don't consider "to be" or "to turn" such verbs).

I wonder, are there other languages that miss a verb to indicate that a person is just completing another year in his life?


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## parakseno

Romanian uses the verb "a împlini" which basically means "to fulfill".

"Ţi-am împlinit dorinţa." - I fulfilled your wish.
"Voi împlini 25 de ani anul viitor.2 - I'll be 25 next year.

It's also possible to use the verb "a face" (to make): "Voi face 25 de ani anul viitor."


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## Outsider

In Portuguese, you can say

_Vou cumprir 77 anos._

like in Spanish, but this is very formal. Normally, you'd say

_Vou fazer 77 anos._

_Fazer_ means "to make". We "make" years.


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## Lemminkäinen

In Norwegian, you can say: *Jeg kommer til å fylle 77 år*, similar to Swedish.

This, however, seems a bit old-fashioned. It'd be better to say *Jeg kommer til å bli 77 år* ("I'll become 77 years"), or even just *Jeg blir 77 år* ("I'm becoming 77 years").

In Russian I'm pretty sure you'd say *Мне будет 77 лет*, "for me there will be 77 years".


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## rocamadour

In italiano:* Compirò (compio) 77 anni*.
The verb is _compiere _(very similar to Spanish "cumplir"). You can both use it in the future (compirò) or present (compio).


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## jester.

In German we sometimes use the verb "vollenden" which means finish/complete/conclude.


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## Chazzwozzer

*"77. yaşımı doldurdum."
*_I filled my 77th age. _(literal translation)

*doldurmak:* to fill


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## badgrammar

In French they talk about "révolu", which is not really fulfill, but to complete. 

For example:
"L'école maternelle est ouvert aux enfants à partir de 2 ans révolus"
(Pre-school is open to children 3 (entire) years old and over)

I don't think this exists in English, we would just skip to the next birthday, and say the child must be three, instead of saying he must have completed his 2cd year in life.

Does that make any sense at all?


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## mcibor

In Polish we say "ukończyć" - complete

Dopóki nie ukończysz osiemnastu lat masz wracać do domu przed dwudziestą pierwszą
You have to come back home before 9 PM untill you finish 18.

Regards
Michał


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## Etcetera

In Russian, it's possible to say Мне исполнилось 77 лет. The verb исполниться here is quite close to the English "to fulfill". But it's a reflexive verb.


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## germinal

Ilmo said:


> Only in English there is no special verb for persons celebrating their birthdays (I don't consider "to be" or "to turn" such verbs).


But in English we can say `In September I will have attained the age of 20 years. 

The above is very formal and normally one would say `I'll be twenty in September.`   

A child might say `I make up seven in September.`


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## Chazzwozzer

The verb *"tamamlamak" *_(to complete)_ also works in Turkish.


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## Thomas1

germinal said:


> But in English we can say `In September I will have attained the age of 20 years.
> 
> The above is very formal and normally one would say `I'll be twenty in September.`
> 
> [...]


We have something similar in Polish:
osiągnąć wiek = attain the age 
It also sounds formal (really formal).

Apart from that we can also say:
_stuknąć_-knock
_Stuknęła mi 40._


Tom


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## irene.acler

rocamadour said:


> In italiano:* Compirò (compio) 77 anni*.
> The verb is _compiere _(very similar to Spanish "cumplir"). You can both use it in the future (compirò) or present (compio).



I'd like to add that in Italian we also say (in a colloquial way):
Faccio 77 anni.


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## modus.irrealis

In Greek, there's συμπληρώνω (simplirono) which has the "fill" idea - it actually matches up perfectly (or at least seems to), i.e. using the same prefix and base verb, with say the Spanish _cumplir_.

But the word I hear most often is κλείνω (klino) whose basic meaning is "close", and a verb with that meaning doesn't seem to have been brought up so far.


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## Maja

In Serbian we "fill up/in" our years. 

Sutra punim petnaest godina.  (Tomorrow I'll be 15.)
On je juče napunio deset godina. (He was ten yesterday).


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## sound shift

In English you can say "He has *reached *the age of 80". "Reach" here seems similar to "fulfil".


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## Jana337

In Czech, we can say "dovršit", which carries the idea of completion, rounding off. But it is rather formal. Normally, you would use "to be" or "to have". For higher ages, you can say something like reach but it would sound impolite for middle-aged people who wouldn't want to be considered seniors yet.

Jana


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## amikama

In Hebrew it's possible to use the verb מָלֵא ("to fill") with years:
*.ימלאו לי 77 שנה*
But it sounds rather formal. Normally we use the word בן/בת (no equivalent in English, sorry) with ages:
*.אהיה בן/בת 77*


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## elroy

Here are the possibilities in Palestinian Arabic:

راح أطبق السبعة وسبعين سنة (_raH aTbo'/aTabbe' is-sab`a wsab`iin sane_) - I will complete 77 years.
راح أخلص السبعة وسبعين سنة (_raH akhalles is-sab`a wsab`iin sane_) - I will finish 77 years.
راح أصير سبعة وسبعين سنة (_raH aSiir sab`a wsab`iin sane_) - I will become 77 years (old). 
راح يصير عمري سبعة وسبعين سنة (_raH iySiir `umri sab`a wsab`iin sane_) - My age [lit. life] will become 77 years. 

In Standard Arabic:

سوف أكمل السابعة والسبعين من عمري (_sawfa ukmilu 's-saabi`ata was-sab`iina min `umri_) - I will complete the 77th (year) of my life.


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## daoxunchang

I think we have more nouns than verbs to express this idea. Oops, thinking about it, I think we have only one verb for this: 过spend


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## cherine

elroy said:


> In Standard Arabic:
> سوف أكمل السابعة والسبعين من عمري (_sawfa ukmilu 's-saabi`ata was-sab`iina min `umri_) - I will complete the 77th (year) of my life.


In Egypt we use the verb أكمل in colloquial : "7akammel sab3a w' sab3iin sana" حكمِّل سبعة وسبعين سنة 

I think the Standard would rather use the verb أتم :
sawfa utimmu 's-saabi3ata was-sab3iina min 3umri
سوف أتم السابعة والسبعين من عمري


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## Encolpius

Ilmo said:


> The verbs used in Finnish and Swedish mean "to fill" and the Spanish verb "cumplir" means more or less "to fulfill" or "to carry out".
> ...
> I wonder, are there other languages that miss a verb to indicate that a person is just completing another year in his life?


 
In Hungarian we use the same verb "fill" = betölt in fromal language. 
*betölti* a 20. életévét (present tense)
*betöltötte* a 20. életévét (past tense)


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## catlady60

sound shift said:


> In English you can say "He has *reached *the age of 80". "Reach" here seems similar to "fulfil".


Might I add, in American English: "He *turned *80 (years of age)."


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## enoo

*French:*
Nothing about fullfilling I guess...
Example:
J'aurai X ans dans 2 mois - (verb avoir: to *have*. I'll have X years in 2 months)
Or in a less common way, it's possible to say:
J'atteindrai les X années dans 2 mois- (verb atteindre: to *reach*. "I'll reach X years in 2 months)


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## ThomasK

sound shift said:


> In English you can say "He has *reached *the age of 80".
> 
> "Reach" here seems similar to "fulfil".


 
This is an interesting point, but : is it? 

I think the underlying conception of years is quite different. Fulfilling implies, I think, seeing time as some kind of container to be filled, while reaching implies in my view a time perspective, maybe some kind of 'place' even - like reaching a town while travelling (life as a journey). Don't you think?


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## nimak

ThomasK said:


> I think the underlying conception of years is quite different. Fulfilling implies, I think, seeing time as some kind of container to be filled, while reaching implies in my view a time perspective, maybe some kind of 'place' even - like reaching a town while travelling (life as a journey). Don't you think?


Yes, it seems like that. And what about "making" years? 



parakseno said:


> Romanian uses the verb "a împlini" which basically means "to fulfill".
> ...
> It's also possible to use the verb "a face" (to make): "Voi face 25 de ani anul viitor."



In *Macedonian* it is "_fulfill / fill up_", but also "_make_" can be used too. When we talk about past, then the verb "наврши" can be used too, it somehow means _"on-peak-ed", "reached-the-peak"_; наврши > на-врх-и = "on-peak _verb_"; this verb also has the meaning of the English "do", like in "_Врши работа._" = "_It does the job._".

"_fulfill / fill up_": *Утре полнам 18 години.* (Útre pólnam 18 gódini.) = _Tomorrow I'll be 18._
"_make_": *Утре правам 18 години.*  (Útre právam 18 gódini.) = _Tomorrow I'll be 18.
"on-peak-ed"; _"_reached_": *Вчера навршив 18 години.* (Včéra návršiv 18 gódini.) = _I was 18 yesterday._


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## Penyafort

In *Catalan*, as in Portuguese, *complir *is possible, but *fer *'to make' is used much more often.

_*· Compliré 77 anys.*_​   " I'll reach* 77 years" ​_*· Faré 77 anys. *_​   " I'll make (=celebrate/attain) 77 years "​​But as in Portuguese too, the Spanish word _cumpleaños _for birthday does not exist, and _*aniversari *_is used instead.


*Note: _*complir *_(_cumplir _in Spanish, _cumprir _in Portuguese, etc) comes from Latin COMPLERE, and when applied to celebrating age should not be understood as 'fulfill' but rather as 'reach' or 'expire'.


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## Circunflejo

In Spanish cumplir is fine but hacer (to make) is fine too; maybe a bit less formal than cumplir.



Penyafort said:


> the Spanish word _cumpleaños _for birthday does not exist, and _*aniversari *_is used instead.


You should tell it to Rosalía... 
Background: Rosalía is a Catalan singer that used cumpleanys instead of the correct aniversari in one of her songs. She isn't the only one that makes that mistake.


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## Penyafort

Circunflejo said:


> You should tell it to Rosalía...
> Background: Rosalía is a Catalan singer that used cumpleanys instead of the correct aniversari in one of her songs. She isn't the only one that makes that mistake.



Indeed . But I'm quite sure she used it deliberately, because her style in that song is the Catalan rumba, associated to Catalan gypsies. It can also be seen in another incorrect word that hasn't called so much attention, the verbal form *_bautitzo _instead of the correct _batejo_.


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