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During study, I was reading about the definition of "Age" at the "Cambridge Dictionary".

Age is: the period of time someone has been alive or something has existed:

Can I put "when" or "where" after time in this sentence ? For instance: The period of time when/where someone has been alive.

I checked the "Google NGram Viewer". All three versions seem to be used frequently.

Another idea: Age is the total number of years that someone has been alive.

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  • The obvious answer is there's no reason not to use "when", but no reason it should be used either. The obvious reason for not using "where" is you are referring to time rather than place.
    – Ross Murray
    Jan 30, 2018 at 20:33

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"Age" is how long the period of time is. If you were to put "when" after "time", t would mean the location (in time) of the period. I noticed that if you go to "American" definition, you'll see:

the length of time someone has been alive or something has existed

Note that this definition has "length" of time, rather than "period". I don't see why they have "period" for the English definition and "length" for American; I'm pretty sure that "age" means length of time in Britain as well.

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  • I agree, but whats about adding "that" or "which" someone has been alive ?
    – FrankMK
    Jan 30, 2018 at 20:37

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