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Ele tem dezanove anos.

Ele tem dezanove anos.
He is nineteen years old.
From Lesson 13:The verb to have (tenho, tem)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Breakdown of Ele tem dezanove anos.

ele
he
ter
to have
o ano
the year
dezanove
nineteen

Questions & Answers about Ele tem dezanove anos.

Why does the Portuguese sentence use tem instead of a word for "is"?
In Portuguese, you express age using the verb ter (to have) rather than a verb meaning "to be". You are literally saying "He has nineteen years" instead of "He is nineteen years old".
Is tem a regular verb form?
No, it is an irregular form of the verb ter. While a regular verb ending in "-er" would usually just drop the "r" for the "he/she" form, ter changes to tem for the third-person singular (ele, ela, você).
I have seen "nineteen" spelled as dezenove before. Why is it dezanove here?
Dezanove with an "a" is the standard spelling in European Portuguese (Portugal). You will often see dezenove with an "e" in online resources because that is the spelling used in Brazilian Portuguese.
Do I need to include the word anos when talking about age?
Yes, in Portuguese you almost always include anos (years) when stating an age. It sounds incomplete to just say Ele tem dezanove, whereas in English we often drop the "years old" and just say "He is nineteen".

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