El Gordo: You Have To Play To Win
by Jerome Socolovsky
This story provides us with three examples of how we express age in English, let's take a look at these very common expressions which can be adjusted difference ages:
in their early 30s
- people in the first few years of their 30s or aged 30, 31 32 and 33.
- can be modified to: in their 30s, in their early 30s, in their mid-30s, in their late 20s
- can be used beginning with teens and go up as old as one wants
- adjective to describe someone between 30 and 39 years old
- can be used beginning with 20 and go as old as one wants, a 20 something man, a 50 something woman, etc.
35 year-old
- adjective used to describe someone's exact age
- can be used for any age, a 1 month-old girl, a 2 year-old boy, a 14 year-old actress, a 35 year-old politician etc.
- careful with the s at the end of year! Jane is 35 years old. Jane is a 35 year-old doctor.
- mired (entangled in, involved in)
- on welfare (receiving payments from the government for being unemployed)
- faith (belief in a person or plan)
- get one's hopes up (become optimistic)
- jinxed (have bad luck)
Now, listen to the story on NPR.
Tell me: is it true that El Gordo is Spain's version of the American Dream and one of three ways to climb the social ladder?
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