Πόσων χρονών είσαι; (How old are you?)

Remember how to count to 30? And how to use the verb είμαι?

To ask how old someone is in Greek, the phrase Πόσων χρονών είσαι; is used (literally ‘Of how many years are you?)

To answer, you would say Είμαι ___ χρονών. (I am ___ years of (age)).

A quick note on the genitive

The word χρονών looks a bit different to any of the nouns we’ve come across so far. That’s because it’s the genitive case of χρόνος, which means both ‘time’ in a general sense, and ‘year’ specifically.

You might be familiar with ‘Chronos‘ the personification of time in ancient Greek mythology.

You may remember that Modern Greek has four cases:

1. nominative (which indicates the subject, i.e. who does the verb)
2. accusative (which indicates the object, i.e. who the verb is done to)
3. vocative (which is used to address someone)
4. genitive (which indicates possession and characteristics)

In English, we indicate belonging using of (as in ‘years of age’) or ‘s (as in ‘Maria‘s age’).

In Modern Greek, χρονών is an example of a genitive noun. All plural genitive nouns end with –ων.

Rather than simply meaning ‘year’ or even just ‘years‘, this handy word means ‘years of‘ (implying ‘years of age’).

Watch this short dialogue to practice asking how old are you:

Note that the word for ‘sister’ αδελφή can also be written αδερφή, as shown in exercise B of page 38 in Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1+1. Likewise, the word for ‘brother’ αδελφός can also be written αδερφός. The city Philadelphia literally means the city of Brotherly Love.

Pay close attention to how Eleni and Yiorgos talk about their siblings ages using είναι (he/she is) instead of είμαι/είσαι (I am/you are). Then, try exercise Γ on page 38 in Ελληνικά Τώρα (Greek Now) 1+1.

Finally, see if you can answer the question Πόσων χρονών είσαι;

If your age ends with a 1, 3, or 4, make sure to read the section below!

BONUS: Ages ending in 1, 3, 4

In Greek, it is necessary for articles, adjectives, participles, and verbs to agree with the noun in terms of gender, case, and number.

Let’s take another look at the question Πόσων χρονών είσαι;

Notice how the word for ‘how many’ (πόσων) agrees with χρονών? They are both plural, masculine, and in the genitive case (ending with –ων).

Most numbers like δυο, πέντε, έξι etc. are indeclinable. That is, they do not change regardless of the gender or case of the noun they refer to.

But you might remember that the numbers 1, 3, and 4 are slightly different to the rest. They change depending on gender, whereas other numbers do not.

Ένα becomes ένας (or μια). Τρια becomes τρεις. Τέσσερα becomes τέσσερεις.

So, for example, we might say:

Τρεις άντρες θέλουν τρία βιβλία. (Three men want three books).

Notice how different words for ‘three’ are used for the men (masculine nominative), and the books (neuter accusative). And the word for ‘want’ (θέλουν) is plural, to agree with the plural subject ‘men’ (άντρες).

In addition to gender, the numbers 1, 3, and 4 are also affected by case.

As we learned above, all plural genitive words end with –ων (whether they be masculine, feminine, or neuter). Thus, the genitive of τρια/τρεις is τριών, and the genitive of τεσσέρα/τεσσέρεις is τεσσάρων.

Of course, one is not a plural. So the genitive is slightly different – and dependent upon gender.

Ένας (masculine) and ένα (neuter) become ενός.

Μια (feminine) becomes μιας.

Since χρόνος is masculine, the version you’ll need to talk about ages is ενός.

Watch Rita Dana’s video for a summary:

Note that, as the title of Rita’s video suggests, this is really an A2 topic. You don’t need to understand the genitive case yet, or memorise these different numbers – all you need to remember is how to say your own age: