Age With The Dative

Level 5

While the standard way to say age is Nominative + mieć + years, Polish also uses a 'dative of age' construction. This impersonal style focuses on the person as an experiencer of time passing, rather than the 'owner' of years.

How It Works

The dative age experiencer (celownik wieku) is a stylistic alternative to the standard mieć construction. It is used in three primary ways:

  • Interrogative: Ile mu lat? (How old is he?) is a common, slightly more traditional alternative to Ile on ma lat?. In the past and future, the verb być is required: Ile mu było lat? or Ile mu będzie lat?.
  • Milestones: Using the verbs stuknąć, bić, or wybić (all meaning to strike/hit) to indicate someone just turned a certain age. This is very common in colloquial speech: Stuknęło mi trzydzieści lat (I just turned thirty). It is also the standard way to refer to turning 21: Stuknęło mu oczko.
  • Literary/Poetic: A verbless construction where the dative pronoun is followed by the age: Jemu lat dwadzieścia (To him [is] twenty years).

Crucially, Polish avoids the present tense copula jest in this construction to avoid Russicisms. However, było and będzie are standard. The years themselves follow numeral government rules.

Examples (4)

  1. Ile mu lat?

    How old is he?

    Word by Word: How many to-him years?

    A common, slightly formal or traditional way to ask for someone's age using the dative pronoun 'mu'.

  2. Wczoraj stuknęło jej czterdzieści lat.

    She just turned forty yesterday.

    Word by Word: Yesterday struck to-her forty years.

    The verb 'stuknąć' is used here in the neuter singular (impersonal) form to indicate reaching a milestone.

  3. Mnie lat dwadzieścia, jemu trzydzieści.

    I am twenty, he is thirty.

    Word by Word: To-me years twenty, to-him thirty.

    This verbless style is typical of poetry or older literature, emphasizing the state of being a certain age.

  4. Tej firmie wkrótce wybije setka.

    This company will soon turn one hundred.

    Word by Word: To-this company soon will-strike hundred.

    The dative construction can be applied to personified entities like companies using the verb 'wybić'.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the present tense 'jest' with the dative age construction.

    Jemu jest dwadzieścia lat.
    On ma dwadzieścia lat. / Jemu stuknęło dwadzieścia lat.

    In the present tense, Polish avoids using the copula 'jest' with a dative experiencer for age (a common error influenced by Russian). You should use the verb mieć with the nominative, or an impersonal verb like 'stuknąć' with the dative.

  • Using the nominative case for the person when using 'stuknąć' or 'bić'.

    On stuknęło czterdzieści lat.
    Jemu stuknęło czterdzieści lat.

    When using impersonal verbs like 'stuknąć' or 'bić' to describe age milestones, the person experiencing the age must be in the dative case (jemu), not the nominative (on).

  • Thinking the dative pattern with 'być' is forbidden in the past.

    Different MeaningIle on miał lat?
    Ile mu było lat?

    Ile on miał lat? is good Polish, and so is the dative pattern in the past: Ile mu było lat? While 'jest' is avoided in the present, the past tense 'było' and the future tense 'będzie' are correct and common with a dative pronoun.

How It Connects

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Age With The DativeLevel 5

Learn This First

Learn Dative Experiencers, Saying Age, Dative Case before Age With The Dative.