Correct use of year/years old

Question

On my profile I wrote:

I'm 19 years old developer.

my friend respectfully corrected me and said that this is correct form:

I'm 19 year old developer.

Why is that so?

What's a developer? Is it to do with real estate or software? — Mari-Lou A, Apr 12 '14 at 18:24
This question appears to be off-topic and should be migrated to ELL i.e. English language learners — Mari-Lou A, Apr 12 '14 at 18:30

Gary's Student · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-12T18:36:33.640

1

The plural is used to describe you so:

I am 19 years old.

is correct

The singular is used to describe developer so:

I am a 19 year old developer.

or

I am a 19-year-old developer.

is correct.

This is similar to:

This is a 19 year old bottle of wine.

or

This is a 19-year-old bottle of wine.

edited Apr 12 '14 at 18:36

answered Apr 12 '14 at 18:20

Gary's Student

6,747

Hyphens are normal with a premodifier. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 12 '14 at 18:29
I agree and have updated the answer to reflect this. – Gary's Student Apr 12 '14 at 18:38

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 13 '14 at 00:10

don't forget the article 'a': I am a 19-year-old developer.

Your friend is right. We also say a five pound note, a three mile run, an eight ounce steak, a ten ton truck etc. Why? They are compound nouns and are effectively singular; also adjectives in English are invariable and these extra modifying words are behaving like adjectives. In the plural, they would take an 's': 6 five pound notes, 5 three mile runs, 4 eight ounce steaks, 3 ten ton trucks and two 19-year-old developers.

Correct use of year/years old

2 Answers2