Level A1

Age

When describing the age of something, you use the genitive case (the fourth case) (genitive case).
1 year2 years
hér er eitt árhér eru tvö ár
um eitt árum tvö ár
frá einu árifrá tveimur árum
til eins árstil tveggja ára
  • Hann er eins árs gamall. He’s 1 year old.
  • Ég ætla að flytja til Danmerkur þegar ég verð tuttugu og eins árs gamall. I’m going to move to Denmark when I become 21 years old.
  • Pabbi minn er fimmtíu og eins árs gamall.
The reason for the age being in the genitive case is the same as in:
  • „Þetta er þriggja hæða hús“ = This is a house of three stories
  • „Þetta er tveggja metra reipi“ = This is a rope of two meters
The reason being that it is describing an attribute of something; you are of 3 years.
It is okay to just skip the “gamall” part:
  • Gísli er orðinn tveggja ára.
It’s even okay to just skip the “ára” part as well, it is just implied.:
  • Ég get ekki fengið nýtt skírteini fyrr en ég verð þrjátíu og tveggja.

Year of birth

It is common for people to not know exactly how old they are, instead they tell you what year they are born in.
  • Ég er fæddur ‘64. = I was born in 1964.
  • Hvenær ertu fæddur? = What year were you born?
Notice that this uses the present tense.
Younger speakers will use “módel”, similar to describing what model a car is:
  • Hvaða módel ertu?
  • Ég er ‘95 módel.