| Assalam u Alaikum mera naam Afrah hai. |
| Hi, My name is Afrah. Welcome to UrduPod101.com’s “3 minat mein Urdu”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Urdu. |
| In the last two lessons, you learned the main usage of the verb hona, which means “to be” in Urdu. In this lesson, you are going to learn another basic usage of the verb in the form - hoon and how to use it to talk about your age. |
| It’s normal for young people in Pakistan to ask each other’s age. Of course, it might be risky to ask people over 25! |
| To ask a woman her age in a formal situation, say Aap kiTne saal ki hain? |
| [slowly] Aap kiTne saal kii hain? |
| If you’re asking a man, the kii will simply change to ke, so it becomes Aap kiTne saal ke hain? |
| [slowly] Aap kiTne saal ke hain? |
| Now, can you say these phrases in the informal way? |
| Just as you’ve learned before, we change the pronoun to Tum and also the sentence-ending “to be” verb to ho. |
| So to ask a woman informally, you say Tum kiTne saal kii ho? |
| And if you’re asking a man, it’s Tum kiTne saal ke ho? Did you get them right? |
| What if *you* get asked this question? How do you answer with your age? Here, you’ll have to use ka hoon or ki hoon which means “am”. |
| Here are some examples. |
| “I am 16.” is main solah ka hoon |
| or main solah ki hoon |
| “I am 25.” is main pachiis ka hoon |
| or main pachiis ki hoon |
| Let’s break it down: |
| We start with the word main meaning “I.” Then we have the number of the age -- solah for 16, biis for 25, and so on. Finally we end with the “to be” verb hona conjugated for the 1st person which is ka hoon for male speakers and ki hoon for female speakers. |
| Sometimes young Pakistani people won’t ask your age directly, but instead, will ask your birth year. |
| You might hear this question in an informal situation: |
| Tum kaunse san ke ho? |
| [slowly] Tum kaunse san ke ho? |
| This literally means “Of which year are you?” |
| You just have to answer using the last two figures of your birth year. For example, main bayaasii ka hoon which literally means “I am of 82.” |
| Now it’s time for Afrah’s Advice |
| Were you born in the year 2000? Sorry, you can’t say that you are ‘of zero-zero’. You have to say the entire year. Main sun do hazaar ka hoon. |
| In this lesson, you learned how to talk about your age and birthdate. Next time you’ll learn how to talk about possession. Have you ever wanted to ask someone if they have a car? |
| I'll be waiting for you with the way to do it in the next 3 minat mein Urdu lesson. Phir milenge. |
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