How old are you?

The Italian Verb Avere

The Italian verb avere means to have, and, of course, is an essential Italian verb to know. Avere serves an important function alone and also as an “assistant,” or auxiliary verb, for  compound verbs. (A compound verb is created from two or more verbs.)

In our last blog, we focused on the present tense of avere and gave the full present tense conjugation, noting that all forms are irregular except for the voi form.

The present tense conjugation is listed again below.  The irregular forms are brown and the regular voi form is green.  The accented syllables are underlined. Say each verb below out loud and remember that in Italian the letter h is always silent!

Avere – to have
Present Tense

io	ho	I have
tu	hai	you (familiar) have
Leilei/lui	ha	you (polite) have he/she has
noi	abbiamo	we have
voi	avete	you all have
loro	hanno	they have

 

Avere – to have
Past Tense and Future Tense

The imperfetto past tense of avere is given below.  This is the form used to ask and answer a general question about age in the past.    The passato prossimo past tense is also presented for more specific situations.*  

Avere has a regular conjugation in the imperfetto. See below for the full conjugation of avere in the imperfetto.  All forms are given in green, as they are all regular.    

Avere —  Imperfetto: avevo, avevi, aveva, avevamo, avevate, avevano

Avere  has a regular past participle, which is avuto, for its conjugation in the passato prossimo.  See below for the conjugation of avere in the passato prossimo:

Avere — Passato Prossimo: ho avuto, hai avuto, ha avuto, abbiamo avuto, avete avuto, hanno avuto.

To talk about all those things you will do in the future when you’ve reached a certain age, use avere in the future tense (or the present tense in some situations).   Avere has an irregular stem in the future tense, which is avr.  But, like all future tense verbs, the endings are regular.

Avere — Future Tense: avrò, avrai, avrà, avremo, avrete, avranno

 

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How to State Your Age
in Italian with Avere

Common Expression – “Quanti anni hai?”

The question of one’s age comes up often in conversation — even when traveling — for instance, when documents are checked or new friends are made.

In English, we say, “How old are you?” using the verb
to be as a statement of fact.
But Italians look at this question as the number of years accumulated during a lifetime and instead use the verb
to have, which is avere.

We must learn to ‘think in Italian’ to state age in Italian!

The familiar way to ask the question about age in Italian is, “Quanti anni hai?” or literally, “How many years do you have?” The common Italian expressions regarding age are really just another way of looking at things.

Quanti anni hai?                     How old are you?  (lit. How many years do you have?)

After this question is asked of you, the response will also use the verb avere, and you will respond:

Io ho ____ anni.                        I am ____  years old. (lit. I have        years.)

It is not necessarily considered bad manners for someone to lie about his or her age (depending on the situation)!  But whatever age one chooses to give, there are a couple of rules that are necessary to make conversation flow more easily in Italian.

1. The tens (20, 30, 40, etc.) drop their last vowel before the word anni. Since it is awkward to say two open-mouthed vowels in a row, dropping the final -i in venti, and especially the redundant -a at the end of trenta and quaranta, allows conversation to flow smoothly.  In this case, the expression would be:

Io ho vent’anni.                       I am 20 years old.  (lit. I have 20 years.) 

Io ho trent’anni.                      I am 30 years old.

Io ho quarant’anni.                I am 40 years old.

… and so on for cinquanta, sessanta, settanta, ottanta, and novanta.

2. For the same reason as given above in rule #1, all numbers that end in uno, (21, 31, 41, etc), drop the final –o before a noun that starts with a vowel. So, if one were 21, 31, or 41 years old, the reply using anni would be as follows:

Io ho ventun’anni.                  I am 21 years old. (lit. I have 21 years.)

Io ho trentun’anni.                 I am 31 years old.

Io ho quarantun’anni.            I am 41 years old.

You’ll probably notice that these two rules are similar to the rule employed when combining single digit numbers to a base 10 number during counting:  trentuno and trentotto, but trentAdue, trentAtre, trentAquattro, trentAcinque, etc.  I like to summarize this rule with the following saying:

The rule for counting from trenta through novanta:
“For ones and eights, take away “a.“

But, of course, there need to remember all these rules when stating your age.  Just look up and commit to memory your age and the ages of your traveling companions for when you visit Italy!

 

One more thing to complete our conversation about stating age in the present tense…

Suppose the speakers are discussing the age of someone else?  In this case, the question and answer both use the third person singular and are:

Quanti anni ha ________?                How old is ________?    (lit. How many years does he/she have?)

Lei/lui ha ____ anni.               He/She is ____ years old.    (lit. He/She has ____ anni.)

 

Of course, for a baby one year or younger, the answer will be a bit different.

Il bambino ha… un’anno or
due, tre, quattro, etc. mese/mesi/anni.     
The baby has one year or
two, three, four, etc. month/months/years.

 

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Common Expression – “Quanti anni aveva?”

To ask,  “How old were you?” and “How old was he/she?” use the imperfetto form of avere.  We can also use the imperfetto of avere to refer to objects, such as an old car your friend was driving before he finally bought a new one!

You can see from the examples below that, although we must change how we conjugate the verb avere — now into the imperfetto past tense — our general phrases and the rules about how to combine numbers with the noun anni do not change!

Quanti anni avevi?      How old were you?  (lit. How many years did you have? )

Avevo vent’anni.          I was 20 years old.  (lit. I had 20 years.)

Quanti anni aveva?     How old was he/she?  (lit. How many years did he/she have? )

Aveva vent’anni.          He/she was 40 years old. (lit. He/she had 20 years.)   

Quanti anni aveva la vecchia macchina di Pietro?
How old was Peter’s old car?

La vecchia macchina aveva cinque anni.
Peter’s old car was 5 years old.

 

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Common Expressions
“Quando avevo…”
“Quando ero giovane…”  “Da Giovane…”

To talk about what you have done in the past at a certain age, start with the imperfetto past tense of avere  and the phrase, “Quando avevo ____ anni…”  for  “When I was ____ years old.”  Then continue with a phrase in either the imperfetto or passato prossimo to describe what you did when you were younger.  The verb of choice for the second phrase will depend mostly on how specific you’d like to be when talking about the actual event in the past. Choosing between the imperfetto and passato prossimo for the main phrase can be a bit tricky, however, and is more complicated than it might seem at first.

We have encountered these two past tenses in many other blogs in this series.  If you need a refresher on how and when to use the imperfetto and passato prossimo past tenses, visit our previous blogs: Italian Past:  “Avere” vs. “Essere,”  “Imperfetto” or “Passato Prossimo?” and The Italian “Imperfetto.”

For now,  two examples are listed below for the main phrase to follow, “Quando avevo ____ anni.”  The situations are similar but according to the rules of Italian, one requires a verb in the imperfetto and the second a verb in the passato prossimo.  Notice that the English verb in the main phrase is the same for both Italian sentences.

Quando avevo dieci anni, andavo a casa di mia nonna ogni domenica  per pranzo.
When I was ten years old, I went to my grandmother’s house every Sunday for lunch.

Quando avevo sedici anni, sono andato a casa di mia nonna solamente una volta, per il giorno di Natale.
When I was 16 years old, I went to my grandmother’s house only once, for Christmas Day.

 

There is another way to speak about what you have done in the past.  Italians often use the introductory phrase, “Quando ero giovane…” or , more simply, “Da giovane…” for “When I was young…”  “Quando ero piccolo…” and “Da piccolo…” express the same idea.  These introductory phrases use essere in the imperfetto past tense to create the setting for the main phrase that follows. Just as in the previous section, the main phrase that follows can use either the imperfetto or the passato prossimo. Two more examples:

Da piccolo, andavo molto spesso a casa dei miei nonni sulla spiaggia durante l’estate.
When I was small, I went to my grandmother’s house during the summer very often.

Quando ero giovane, sono andato a casa dei miei nonni sulla spiaggia nell’agosto del 1980 per tutta la settimana di Ferragosto.
When I was small, I went to my grandmother’s house on the beach in August of 1980 for the entire week of Ferragosto.

 

A side note: for that famous English saying, “Once upon a time…” Italians say, “C’era una volta…” and usually follow this phrase with a story in the imperfetto! 

 

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Common Expressions
“Quando avrò…”
“Quando sarò grande…”

If you want to talk about what you will be doing in the future at a certain age, this is easy.  Just use the future tense of avere and follow with another phrase in the future tense about what you plan to do!

Notice in the two examples, with diciotto, there is an exception to the rule mentioned in the second section about how to add single numbers to the tens.  In this case, the “i” at the end of dici is needed to create the “ch” sound, so it is not dropped before adding the “o” at the beginning of “otto.”

Quando avrò diciotto anni, me ne andrò di casa.
When I turn 18 years old, I will leave home.

Quando avrò diciotto anni, lavorerò nel ristorante della mia famiglia.
When I turn 18 years old, I will work in my family’s restaurant.

Quando avrò diciotto anni, mi sono trasferirò a Roma e andrò all’università.
When I turn 18 years old, I move to Rome and go to college.

Quando avrò ventidue anni, mi laureerò dall’università.
When I turn 22 years old, I will graduate from college.

 

Often children or young people speak even more generally about what their dreams are in the future whey they “grow up.” In Italian, use the phrase, “Quando sarò grande…” In this case, with essere in the future tense.

Remember, as in our first example, that Italians use reflexive verbs when in English we say “to get.” Either the present or the future tenses can be used for sposare/sposarsi, since Italians often defer to the present tense for an event in the near future. English, however, always uses the future tense.

Quando sarò grande, mi sposo/sposerò.
When I grow up, I will get married.

Quando sarò grande, sposo/sposerò con Maria.
When I grow up, I will marry Mary.

Quando sarò grande, avrò una casa grande in campagna.
When I grow up, I will have a big house in the country.

Quando sarò grande, lavorerò in città in una grande azienda.
When I grow up, I will work in the city in a big company.

 

A few more examples if you will be doing something together with someone else when you grow up, like getting married…  Remember that Italians put themselves first when mentioning the two persons involved in the “we.”  So, Italians say, “io e…“  for “I and someone.”  In English it is proper to put yourself second and say, “someone and I.” See the second example.

Quando saremo grandi, ci sposiamo/sposeremo. 
When we grow up, we will get married.

Quando saremo grandi, io ed Maria ci sposiamo/sposeremo.
When we grow up, Mary and I will get married.

Quando saremo grande, abiteremo in una casa grande in campagna.
When we grow up, we will live in a big house in the country.

 

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To complete our discussion of age, here is a general list of terms in Italian and English that describe us all, as we grow from a baby to an adult:

il bambino/il bimbo           the baby (male)

la bambina/la bimba         the baby (female)

il ragazzino                           the little boy

la ragazzina                          the little girl

il ragazzo                               the boy/the young man

la ragazza*                            the girl/the young woman*

l’uomo                                    the man

la donna                                 the woman

il signore                                the gentleman

la signorina                            the young lady (unmarried)

la signora                                the lady (married)

 

**Opera fans may encounter the words fanciulla (the pretty young maiden) and gioconda (the lighthearted, merry girl), but fanciulla and gioconda are otherwise not used much anymore in Italy to describe young women.

*La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West) is an opera by Giacomo Puccini based on a play by the American author David Belasco.

*La Gioconda is a reference to the girl who plays the title role in the grand opera of the same name, composed by Amilcare Ponchielli, and is also used as the Italian name for the Mona Lisa.

 

Remember how to use
the Italian verb avere
to answer the question, “Quanti anni hai?”
and I guarantee you will be able to
state your age easily every day!

Conversational Italian for Travelers “Just the Important Phrases” pocket travel book with audio on your favorite streaming platform from Amazon.com and  www.learntravelitalian.com

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