"Nós somos cinco em nossa família."

Translation:We are five in our family.

January 14, 2013

17 Comments
This discussion is locked.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/mehlikaakkaya

Is "we are five in our family" a common usage in English? I wrote "we are five people in our family" because "we are five in our family" sounded weird to me. Maybe "we are a family of five" would fit better, even though it's not a literal translation.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/RonLosure

"We are five in our family" or "We are five people in our family" both sound very strange in English, but almost any English speaker would understand. It would be more common to say "There are five of us in our family" or "There are five in our family".


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Josh.Ley

We're five in our family could mean you all are five years old hahaha

We're five people... Sounds odd. I'd say 'there are five of us in our family' (still awkward anyway)


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/apenhorwood

I am an American and we would say "We have five in our family". I get that would be "Nós temos cinco em nossa família" but translation should take into count how it is expressed in the second language.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Claudine589817

Totally agree. This is where Duolingo falls down. Natural English translations are sacrificed in order to fit more closely to the target language, defeating the purpose of learning a language...


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/LeonardRob20

in English we say "there are five people/ persons / of us in my family". we NEVER say "we are five in my family"


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/sketchpatrol

The most natural way to say this in english is "We are a family of five."


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/AloZeMouZe

Personally I would say " we are a family of 5".


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/jane370977

I would never say 'we are five in our family'. Surely translation has to take into consideration how a native speaker would express the message rather than just translate it literally. (And I'm annoyed I've lost a heart!)


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/JelenePhil

I thought, "There are five in our family" would work-


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Bread1

doesn't tem / há seis em nossa família make more sense? or is this just they way people would say this?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Luis_Domingos

Not really, tem/há would need "pessoas" to complete the meaning (and it sounds a little remote); and yes, we do express ourselves like this.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Gyozo_Cserhalmy

Together with parents?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/J.osiyo

There is five in our family. Thats the way I would say it


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/DavidLamb53073

Wouldn't you say "There are five in our family"?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/dwsmithdc

"Our family has five members" Would be my translation to spoken English.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/GreengoStarr

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