Breakdown of Извините, сколько вам лет?
сколько вам лет
how old are you (polite)
извините
excuse me, sorry (polite)
Questions & Answers about Извините, сколько вам лет?
Why does the sentence use вам instead of вы?
In Russian, you don't say that you "are" a certain age. Instead, age is expressed as something given to you. Because of this, you must use the Dative case (which shows who is receiving an action). вам is the Dative form of вы, making the literal meaning of this sentence "how many years to you?"
Why do we use лет for "years" here instead of год?
The word for year (год) changes depending on the number before it. After quantity words like сколько (how many), Russian requires the plural form лет. You would only use год if the answer ends in 1 (like 21), and года if it ends in 2, 3, or 4.
If I want to ask a friend this same question, how would the sentence change?
You would need to change the formal words to informal ones. The formal pronoun вам becomes the informal тебе. You also drop the formal ending on the apology, so Извините becomes Извини. The new sentence for a friend is: Извини, сколько тебе лет?
Why isn't there a verb like "are" in the Russian sentence?
In the present tense, Russian almost always drops the verb "to be" (am, is, are). So instead of "how old are you?", the Russian structure literally asks "how many to you years?" without needing a verb.
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