Use of "have"

Question

Can anyone explain why "I have 25 years" is incorrect.  I feel intuitively it must be incorrect but can't seem to find a grammatical reason why.Thanks!

LouiseT · Accepted Answer

Hello ptravler and welcome to the forum [<:o)]

In English when we want say our age, we use:
To Be + Number (age) + years old.

The use of to be and to have is not the same in all languages.

For example we use "to be" for sensations such as hot / cold / happy / excited.

Ptravler · Answer

Thanks for that -- hmmm, i'm filling out an app for a CELTA class and one of the exercises is to tell what's wrong with "I have 25 years". I first answered it that years cannot be possessed and the sentence must have modifier (eg work experience).. the evaluator came back with "Please look at this one again, do not add a “modifier” to it. What is the error?"

Any ideas?

CalifJim · Answer

ptravlerthe evaluator

Unfortunately, these types have little sense of imagination or humor. Maybe he/she wanted you to say "It's unidiomatic in English as a way of stating one's age". Who knows?

CJ

BillJ · Answer

ptravlerThanks for that -- hmmm, i'm filling out an app for a CELTA class and one of the exercises is to tell what's wrong with "I have 25 years". I first answered it that years cannot be possessed and the sentence must have modifier (eg work experience).. the evaluator came back with "Please look at this one again, do not add a “modifier” to it. What is the error?"
Any ideas?

You were asked to state what's wrong with describing one's age as "I have 25 years". In your first answer, you were correct in saying that 'years (of age) cannot be possessed', though I would have supported that by saying that we don't state our age by using 'have' + the number of years. But your error was going on to talk about 'modifiers' and 'work experience' (which are quite irrelevant), when all that was required of you was a simple statement of how we do actually state our own age in English, which is 'I am + number of years-old': "I am 25 years-old". So, your evaluator was correct in telling you to "look at this once again" - he/she was telling you to forget 'modifiers' and 'work experience' and stick to the point, which was about the correct way of stating one's age in English.

BillJ

Use of "have"

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