I recently received this reader-submitted question:
Hello Kim,
I stumbled upon your website while looking for something I found hard to even google, so here I am with a question!
For the travel website me and my partner own, we are writing a feature article about someone, and I’m puzzled about which one is the better way to state his age in this sentence:
“Kem arrived in Phnom Penh at 18 years old, and quickly found a job in constructions.”
“Kem arrived in Phnom Penh at age 18, and quickly found a job in constructions.”
“ Kem arrived in Phnom Penh at 18, and quickly found a job in constructions.”The one in bold is what my partner wrote, but it sounds incomplete to me, I mean, in my head, if it were a lower number, you wouldn’t know if it’s an age or an hour!
I know it’s common to say “he’s 18”, and that is quite self explanatory, but I wonder how correct it is to use just the number in an article.
English is not my first language, I apologise if I made any gross mistake!
Thank you so much, hope you have a moment to help us out!
Cheers,
Francesca
Hey, Francesca.
Thanks for reaching out.
I totally agree with you. That third option is to ambiguous. Honestly, though, I’d probably write it as, “Kem arrived in Phnom Penh as an 18-year-old and quickly found a job in construction.”
Hope that helps!