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Sobre la expresión 'Eramos doce en la fiesta" en inglés
Thread poster: Antonio Berbel Garcia
Antonio Berbel Garcia
Antonio Berbel Garcia
Local time: 16:30
Spanish
+ ...
Mar 4, 2023

A student wants to know why the sentence "We were seven at the party" is wrong. I know it should be "There were seven of us at the party".
What is the best way to explain it from a grammatical point of view?
thanks a lot in advance


[Editado a las 2023-03-04 16:15 GMT]
 
philgoddard
philgoddard
United States
German to English
+ ...
I don't think you can always explain things in grammatical terms Mar 6, 2023

English just says it differently.
'We were seven" is not totally wrong, just less colloquial.

Marijke Singer
expressisverbis
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:30
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
@Antonio Mar 6, 2023

There + to be and groups of people or objects

https://www.practisingenglish.com/english-grammar/there-is.htm

expressisverbis
 
Antonio Berbel Garcia
Antonio Berbel Garcia
Local time: 16:30
Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Not really an explanation Mar 6, 2023

So why not "We are seven" from the point of view of prescriptive grammar?
 
Jennifer Levey
Jennifer Levey  Identity Verified
Chile
Local time: 10:30
Spanish to English
+ ...
It ain't wrong, so no explanation warranted. Mar 6, 2023

Antonio Berbel Garcia wrote:
A student wants to know why the sentence "We were seven at the party" is wrong. (...)


If I were you, I'd just tell the student there's nowt wrong with the sentence.

What is 'wrong' is your next assertion:

Antonio Berbel Garcia wrote:
I know it should be "There were seven of us at the party".


'should' ought to read 'could'.

JL

expressisverbis
 
MollyRose
MollyRose  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 09:30
English to Spanish
+ ...
We were seven ... Mar 6, 2023

... leads one to think that "we" were seven years old. When we read the rest of the sentence in context, we should usually understand that the writer meant, "There were seven of us at the party." Someone not familiar with this Spanish way of saying it, or not very literate in some way, could misunderstand it or wonder what the writer meant by that. It sounds unnatural in English. As M.T.B. de A. said, there is a rule, which corresponds to "Hubo siete de nosotros en la fiesta."

expressisverbis
 


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Sobre la expresión 'Eramos doce en la fiesta" en inglés






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