Breakdown of Mój kolega ma piętnaście lat.
mieć
to have
mój
my
kolega
the colleague (m) / the friend (m)
rok
year
piętnaście
fifteen
Questions & Answers about Mój kolega ma piętnaście lat.
Why is it Mój kolega and not Moja kolega if the word ends in the letter a?
Even though kolega ends in the letter a, which usually means a word is feminine, it refers to a male friend. Because the person is male, the word is treated as a masculine noun. That is why we use the masculine possessive pronoun mój instead of the feminine moja.
Why does the sentence use ma instead of a word for is?
In Polish, you do not say that you are a certain number of years old; you say that you have years. The word ma comes from the verb mieć (to have), so the literal translation of this sentence is My friend has fifteen years.
Why is the word for years lat here instead of lata or rok?
The word for year changes depending on the number before it. For 1 year, you use rok. For 2, 3, and 4, you use lata. For numbers 5 and above, like piętnaście in this sentence, you must use the Genitive plural form lat.
If I want to ask someone their age, how does the word lat work with the question word ile?
You would ask Ile masz lat? which literally means How many years do you have? The question word ile (how many) works just like the number 15 in this sentence: it requires the word that follows it to be in the Genitive case, which is why we use lat.
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