In most languages (I know of), people say their age with a construction like I have X years
. In English, however, you say how old you are instead. So I'm curious about what is it about the logic of English that makes this sound more natural than I have X years
. All I can find is that "this is just cultural/this is just how the language evolved", but I'm sure there's some logic to it.
I'm also particularly interested in the logic that makes the construction I am X years old
possible. I suppose it comes from the fact that, in English, we modify/specify words by placing words before the word we want to modify/specify. Something like:
— I am old.
— How old?
— Very old.
— How old exactly?
— 900 years old.
Am I on the right track? Is 900 years
in this case really behaving the same as very
, or interchangeable with it? (The available information about numerals as adjectives or adverbs is very conflicting.) Or is there something more specific about numbers, or this particular construction, that apply here?