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How to write ages in a sentence

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!

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