New Words       

ǎtheq  အသက်  age   

hniq  နှစ်  year   

  Sentences     

S1  Ătheq beh-lauq shí-bi-lèh?  အသက် ဘယ်လောက် ရှိပြီလဲ။  How old are you? 

S2  Ătheq thoùn-zéh thoùn-hniq shí-bi.  အသက် သုံးဆယ့် သုံးနှစ် ရှိပြီ။  I am 33 years old. 

or  Ătheq thoùn-zeh shí-bi.  အသက် သုံးဆယ် ရှိပြီ။  I am 30 years old. 

Notes 

Ătheq-beh-lauq - shí-bi-lèh? “How old are you?” Literally: “Age - how much - have?” 

Ătheq - thoùn-zéh thoùn-hniq - shí-bi. “I am 33 years old.” Literally: “Age - 33 years - have.” Compare Bǎma-pye yauqne- da thoùn-hniq shí-bi. “I’ve been in Burma for three years” (9.3, 9.4). 

Ătheq thoùn-zeh shí-bi. “I am 30 years old.” The round number rule applies to counting years as it does to counting kyats and almost everything else. When the number ends in a zero, you omit the word hniq “year.” For counting kyats see 1.11. For the verb suffix -bi see Verb Paradigms in Appendix 3 (outline grammar).