What's up with the ば in this sentence?


泥棒は３０代半ばだったと思います。=> "I think that the thief was in their mid-thirties."

I'm not sure what ば is doing in this sentence. It seems like it would
translate the same (and be 'legal') without it. The only use of ば I'm familiar
with is with conditionals but this doesn't make any sense as a conditional,
unless it's trying to express a "maybe" of some kind?




半ば is read なかば for which you will find a dictionary entry.




半ば is read なかば. It's one word meaning "in the middle"

