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Here is a sentence excerpted from an APA psychological research paper,

Teen suicide is a growing health concern. It is the third-leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24, surpassed only by homicide and accidents, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

I've heard people use both "people aged from X to Y" and "people ages from X to Y" quite often, but I've always been believing that only the former is grammatically correct, whereas in the latter the "ages" doesn't seem to serve as any grammatical component of this sentence. So when I see an APA paper use "ages" in that way, I am just quite surprised: I just can't believe such an authoritative and rigourous academic institution will let such an explicit (and indeed naive, even to a non-native speaker's eyes) grammatical mistake survive in their publications. I'm aware that in daily language usage one ought not to become so fussy over insignificant matters like this, but I do wonder whether it should be paid attention to in academic writings.

OR, using "ages" in that way is no longer considered a grammatical mistake? Honestly I don't think this'd be true, but if it really is, I'd be grateful to be informed. Thanks!

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  • People aged 15 - 24; People aged from 15 - 24; People from 15 - 24 years of age, etc. are in common use. Also used are styles like 'The victims are people of 15 - 24 years. However, 'People ages from 15 to 24' sounds like answer to the question 'Of what age group are the people?"
    – Ram Pillai
    Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 6:02
  • @RamPillai: No, "People ages from 15 to 24" is not English at all.
    – TonyK
    Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 13:04
  • @TonyK: Did I say 'People ages from 15 to 24'? This is an extract from OP's post. Hope you will read before making a comment.
    – Ram Pillai
    Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 14:29

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In this context, it's a typo and should be written aged, as you note.

Aged Predicative or postpositive adjective Having lived for a specified length of time; of a specified age: 'young people aged 14 to 18'; 'he died aged 60' - ODO

The present tense can be used in similar sentences like This class is for ages 5 to 7. However, here "age 5", "age 6" and "age 7" are each treated as a noun phrase, with the aggregation written as "ages 5 to 7".

The sentence you quote (mis)uses "ages" as an adjective, not a noun or a noun phrase, so the proper term should be aged.

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  • But couldn't you also say "from the age of 5"? And "Children start reading between the ages of 4 and 7" (for example)? Wouldn't the example cited then be a case of elision?
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Mar 20, 2016 at 9:57
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    @Mari-LouA You could, but aren't those using age(s) of X as noun phrases rather than adjectives?
    – Lawrence
    Commented Mar 20, 2016 at 9:59
  • Perhaps the OP is confused between the NP and adjective?
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Mar 20, 2016 at 10:00
  • That's what my answer tries to clear up. Perhaps I haven't been clear enough about it :/ .
    – Lawrence
    Commented Mar 20, 2016 at 10:01
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    No, I didn't read your answer properly. Sorry!
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Mar 20, 2016 at 10:02
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I was wondering when its appropriate to use "aged" instead of "age" after seeing both used on the captions of a tv show ive been watching bc its alternating back and forth between both words and I cannot seem to pick up the pattern or see why one is used instead of or in place of the other. The first sentence said "Cynthia aged 16 was found dead" and then the next sentence was "Heather age 20 was found dead" why is the term "aged" used when describing Cynthia's age but the term "age" is used when referring to Heather...??

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    Please ask new questions by clicking the 'Ask Question' button. The SE format doesn't support multiple questions in the same thread.
    – KillingTime
    Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 8:09

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