Common Mistakes : Aged

Aged – Adjective

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DUBIOUS: Not all aged parents have children to look after them

GOOD: Not all elderly parents have children to look after them

When it means ‘very old’, aged is mainly used in formal styles, usually in the phrase the aged : The poor and the aged are entitled to free health care

The usual word for this meaning is elderly, which also sounds polite: ‘The photograph was of an elderly gentleman with a white moustache.’ The building has been converted into a retirement home for the elderly

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BAD: My father left school at aged fourteen

GOOD: My father left school at (the age of) fourteen

BAD: At aged 45, farmers are able to retire

GOOD: At (the age of) 45, farmers are able to retire

at (the age of ) + NUMBER: ‘Alan got married at twenty.’ Sue got divorced at the age of twenty-one