How do native speakers express a kid's age like "7¾" or "7½" in the spoken language?
Can I say "almost 8"?
How many ways are there and which one is the commonest?
7
-
37 and half or almost 8 is what everyone would say, I guess. Have never come across anyone who says "7 and 3/4"– Mamta DCommented Oct 28, 2015 at 5:50
-
3I'd agree. To expand use weeks up to 4 weeks, then months up to 12, then years. Using half year is largest split. So 7, just over 7, 7 and a half, or almost 8.– MaxWCommented Oct 28, 2015 at 5:56
-
Can I say "3 months to 8", then?– dennylvCommented Oct 28, 2015 at 6:01
-
Can I say "over 7, almost 8"?– dennylvCommented Oct 28, 2015 at 6:12
-
1Neither of those are things native speakers would say. "3 months to 8" just sounds weird. "over 7" implies "8 or older" not "almost 8". Stick with MaxW's suggestions.– ssavCommented Oct 28, 2015 at 10:14
|
Show 2 more comments
1 Answer
If I wanted to say either of the ages in the question out loud (or indeed, those numbers for any reason) I would say
"Seven and a half" for 7½
(notice the "a", non-native speakers often omit it. 7 and one half is also acceptable and may be preferred in some areas)
and
"Seven and three quarters" for 7¾
Note though, it is unusual to be this specific for ages above ~2. Most people would just say the child is 7.
Children themselves often want to seem as old as possible and so are more likely to use "7 and three quarters". This is often seen as childish and therefore ironically has the opposite of the desired effect, by actually making the child seem less mature.
If you need to emphasize how close to being 8 the child is, I would use
"He's nearly 8"
or maybe
"He'll be 8 in three months"
but for the most part, if the question was just "how old is this child?" the answer is "7"
