Festa di compleanno: papà e bambini nelle immagini

What does “compiere gli anni” mean in Italian?

To say how old someone is becoming, Italian uses the verb compiere with anni (years): compio gli anni means it’s my birthday, and compiere sette anni means to turn seven. The verb compiere on its own means to complete or carry out something, so the picture is literally “completing” another full year of life. The age sits right after the verb, with no extra word for “old.”

In the clip the narrator describes a child’s party and says, “È il suo compleanno e compie sette anni” (It’s his birthday and he turns seven), after first asking “Quanti anni compie?” (How old is he turning?). You’ll also hear the bare form “Questo bambino compie gli anni” to mean it’s this child’s birthday. The verb compiere comes from Latin complēre, “to fill up, complete” (the same root behind complete and compleanno itself, “birthday”). Useful forms: io compio, tu compi, lui/lei compie; a common everyday variant is compire. Note the noun compleanno literally packs in compie + anno, “completes a year.” So while English counts birthdays you have, Italian counts the years you finish.