Breakdown of Twój syn ma teraz dwanaście lat.
mieć
to have
teraz
now
twój
your
syn
son
rok
year
dwanaście
twelve
Questions & Answers about Twój syn ma teraz dwanaście lat.
Why is it Twój and not Twoja or Twoje?
Twój means "your" and changes its form depending on the gender of the noun it describes. Since syn (son) is a masculine noun, we use the masculine form Twój. If you were talking about a daughter (córka, feminine), it would be Twoja córka.
Why does the sentence use ma (has) instead of "is"?
In Polish, you don't say that someone "is" a certain age. Instead, you say they "have" a certain number of years. Ma is the "he/she/it has" form of the verb mieć (to have). So literally, this sentence translates to "Your son has now twelve years."
What does lat mean here?
Lat means "years" when used with numbers from five and up (like dwanaście). It is a special plural form of the word rok (year). When talking about age, you'll usually see lata used for numbers ending in 2, 3, and 4, but lat used for 5 and above.
How do you pronounce the "ó" in Twój?
The letter ó (o with an acute accent over it) makes an "oo" sound, exactly like the standard Polish letter u. So Twój is pronounced very much like "tvooy".
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