A1 · Section 16

Years and Age

How old someone is, in which year something happened, and how to say one was born on a given date — the biographical uses of *metai* that ¶86 only sketched.

Metai Is a Plural Word

88.Metai (year / years) is a plurale tantum: it has no everyday singular. One year is still plural in form — vieneri metai (or colloquial vieni metai). With the special plural numerals used for plural-only nouns, two to nine years are dveji / treji / ketveri / penkeri … metai. From ten upwards the ordinary rule of ¶58 applies and metai stands in the genitive: dešimt metų, dvidešimt metų.

Vieneri metai.: One year.
Penkeri metai.: Five years.
Dešimt metų.: Ten years.
Dvidešimt penkeri metai.: Twenty-five years. — last element 2–9 → plural numeral + nominative *metai*

Counting years
number	form
1	vieneri metai
2	dveji metai
5	penkeri metai
10	dešimt metų
21	dvidešimt vieneri metai
27	dvidešimt septyneri metai

The same plural numerals appear with other plural-only nouns (durys, rinkimai). Ordinary du metai occurs in speech; careful style keeps dveji metai.

[1] Sources: Terje Mathiassen, A Short Grammar of Lithuanian (Slavica, 1996), §§ on pluralia tantum and special (plural) cardinals — vieneri / dveji / penkeri metai; Lithuanian school morphology of dauginiai skaitvardžiai (NSA / curriculum materials on the numeral); LSMU Grammar paradigms (medical Lithuanian) listing penkeri metai, dvidešimt vieneri metai, dvidešimt septyneri metai.

Saying How Old Someone Is

89.Age is not I am twenty. Lithuanian puts the person in the dative and states the years as the thing that ‘is’ to them: Man (yra) dvidešimt metų — literally to me (there) are twenty years. The verb yra is often dropped. The question is Kiek tau / jums metų? (How many years to you?). Do not say Aš esu dvidešimt metų.

Kiek tau metų?: How old are you? (familiar)
Kiek jums metų?: How old are you? (polite / plural)
Man (yra) dvidešimt metų.: I am twenty.
Jam penkeri metai.: He is five. — plural numeral + *metai*
Jai aštuoniolika metų.: She is eighteen.
Pacientui dvidešimt penkeri metai.: The patient is twenty-five.

[1] Sources: Mathiassen (1996), “The dative of age” (Case chapter); Ambrazas (ed.), Lithuanian Grammar (Baltos lankos, 1997/2006), dative experiencer constructions; LSMU medical Lithuanian paradigms: Kiek jums metų? — Man dvidešimt penkeri. / Pacientui dvidešimt penkeri metai. The genitive metų after kiek and after numerals from ten up is the ordinary government of ¶58, not a special ‘age genitive’.

In Which Year: the Instrumental

90.To answer kada? for a calendar year, Lithuanian uses the instrumental plural metais with an ordinal on the last element of the number only — the construction sketched in ¶86. Gimiau tūkstantis devyni šimtai devyniasdešimt penktaisiais metais = I was born in 1995. In speech the opening tūkstantis… is often dropped: devyniasdešimt penktaisiais (metais). Writing may shorten with a figure: 1995 m.

Gimiau tūkstantis devyni šimtai devyniasdešimt penktaisiais metais.: I was born in 1995.
Du tūkstančiai dvidešimtaisiais metais grįžau.: In 2020 I returned.
Ji gimė tūkstantis devyni šimtai pirmais metais.: She was born in 1901. — Mathiassen’s example type

[1] Source: Mathiassen (1996), Numerals / years and dates: “To answer the question when? (kada?) the instrumental case is used for the year: ji gimė tūkstantis devyni šimtai pirmais metais ‘she was born in 1901’.” Only the last element is ordinal; earlier elements stay cardinal.

Full Dates: Year, Month, and Day

91.A full birth (or other) date keeps Lithuanian order year — month — day. The month is in the genitive; the day is an accusative ordinal (¶85). The year may be instrumental (… metais) or, when a month/day follows, also genitive (… metų). Example pattern: Gimiau tūkstantis devyni šimtai devyniasdešimt penktaisiais metais kovo dvidešimtą — I was born on the 20th of March, 1995.

Gimiau tūkstantis devyni šimtai pirmais metais kovo dvidešimtą.: I was born on 20 March 1901.
Ji gimė tūkstantis devyni šimtai pirmų metų kovo dvidešimtą dieną.: She was born on the twentieth day of March of the year 1901. — year in genitive when the date is fully spelled
Šiandien tūkstantis devyni šimtai devyniasdešimt ketvirtų metų kovo dvidešimta diena.: Today is 20 March 1994. — nominative *diena* when the date is the subject

[1] Source: Mathiassen (1996), same section — year instrumental or genitive when accompanied by month/day; month genitive; day accusative for ‘when?’, but nominative when the date is what ‘today is’. Order is year before date, unlike English.

Age, Duration, and ‘Years Ago’

92.Three neighbouring constructions must stay distinct. Age takes the dative person + years (Man dvidešimt metų). Duration — for two years — takes the accusative of time (¶83): dvejus metus / du metus. Ago uses prieš + accusative (¶87): prieš penkerius metus, prieš metus. Pernai (last year) and šiemet (this year) are adverbs, not case forms of metai.

Man dvidešimt metų.: I am twenty. (age)
Gyvenau Vilniuje dvejus metus.: I lived in Vilnius for two years. (duration)
Prieš penkerius metus atvažiavau.: I arrived five years ago.
Pernai baigiau mokyklą.: Last year I finished school.

[1] Sources: Mathiassen (1996) on accusative of duration with plural numerals (ji prabuvo dvejus metus Vilniuje) and on prieš + accusative; ¶83 and ¶87 of this course; pernai / šiemet as lexical time adverbs in standard descriptions and dictionaries (DLKT / school vocabularies).

Vocabulary

gimti: to be born · verb; gimsta, gimė, I
pernai: last year · adverb
vieneri: one (with plural-only nouns) · numeral; With metai: vieneri metai. Feminine vienerios.
dveji: two (with plural-only nouns) · numeral; dveji metai; accusative dvejus metus (duration).
penkeri: five (with plural-only nouns) · numeral; penkeri metai; prieš penkerius metus.
aštuoniolika: eighteen · numeral
trisdešimt: thirty · numeral
amžius: age (span of life); century · noun; amžiaus, amžių, m., II
šiemet: this year · adverb
kitąmet: next year · adverb

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