How Old Are You?

PATTY: I’m really excited for Aunt Mary’s surprise birthday party this afternoon! Aren’t you? SUSAN: Yeah! How old is she? PATTY: She’ll be 55 on May 14 [fourteenth]. SUSAN: Wow! I didn’t know that my mom was older — she’s going to be 57 on September 2 [second]. Anyway, Aunt Mary’s going to be so surprised to see us all here! PATTY: I know! But we still have to get all the food set up before she gets here … OK! We’re all ready now. Shh! She’s here! ALL: Surprise! LANGUAGE NOTES • I’m really excited … Notice the emphasis on “really.” “Really” is used to emphasize the adjective “excited” here. • Birthday party Notice that the normal stress for a compound noun falls on the first element of the compound. • Aren’t you? This negative tag is used to show that the speaker expects a positive answer. Patty assumes that Susan is also looking forward to the party. • She’ll be 55 Notice that “55” is stressed here. This detail answers the question “How old is she?” • Fourteenth Notice that we use “th” for ordinal numbers, starting with 4 [but first, second and third]. The stress is on the second syllable [fourTEENTH]. Compare this with “fortieth: 40th” [FORtieth]. • She’s going to be ... Notice how this is pronounced like “gonna be.” Instead of four syllables “go/ing/to/be” there are three syllables “ga/na/be.”