Breakdown of Ona ma sześćdziesiąt trzy lata.
ona
she / it (f)
mieć
to have
trzy
three
rok
year
sześćdziesiąt
sixty
Questions & Answers about Ona ma sześćdziesiąt trzy lata.
Why do we use ma (has) here instead of a word for "is"?
In Polish, you don't be an age; you have years. Instead of saying "She is sixty-three," you literally say "She has sixty-three years" (Ona ma sześćdziesiąt trzy lata). You will always use the verb mieć (to have) when talking about someone's age.
Why is the word for years lata in this sentence instead of lat?
The Polish word for "years" changes depending on the last digit of the number. Because sześćdziesiąt trzy ends in trzy (three), we use lata. The form lata goes with any number ending in 2, 3, or 4 (except for the teens: 12, 13, and 14). Most other numbers use lat.
If she was exactly sixty years old, would the sentence still end with lata?
No, it would end with lat. Since the rule for "years" depends on the very last word of the spoken number, a round number ending in a zero like 60 (sześćdziesiąt) takes lat. "She is sixty" would be Ona ma sześćdziesiąt lat.
How are big numbers like sześćdziesiąt trzy built in Polish?
They are built exactly like they are in English! You just take the tens word (sześćdziesiąt for sixty) and add the single digit word (trzy for three) right after it as a separate word.
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