"There are five of us."
Translation:Vi är fem stycken.
23 Comments
Sure. It sounds a little more contrived but it's perfectly possible.
1719
It accepted that for me. But I'm assuming that the preferred answer is better to use in conversation?
- 880
There's a slight difference in meaning. If you want to say that your group consists of 5 people, go with the one here. If you want to say for instance, only a few people in the world can do X, and there are five us, then det finns fem av oss works very well.
So styck in Swedish can be used both for people and for objects? Both in German and Russian, the corresponding expression (Stück/shtuka) would only ever be applied to inanimate objects.
- 880
Yup, both пять штук and нас пятеро. To be fair it isn't used very often for people, but it's certainly possible (the sentence here is good but we usually just say Han har tre barn 'He has three kids' without stycken).
Note that styck and stycken aren't really the same word – styck is used e.g. to say De kostar fem kronor styck 'They cost 5SEK a piece' and stycken is used like here.
I have found (in Skåne at least!) that it is applied to people all the time! Especially in written form. eg. Meet us at the pub? Vi är 5st. Or various other situations. People often just say Vi är 5 as well though.
I was kinda surprised how often I have come across it. Despite having read here that it could be used for people I was still uncomfortable with using it for the reason Baba7249 describes. Getting used to it now though.
Shouldn't this be det är? Because its temporary the 5 of us? Det finns for static non changing facts? Like det finns ett hus till höger
- 880
For some reason Det är fem av oss on its own sounds really weird – I expect a relative clause to follow after that, otherwise it doesn't really make sense. It's something about är in combination with av.
Either Vi är fem or Det finns fem av oss, but don't mix them.
- 316
So this could be used when you enter a restaurant and the host asks, "How many?" Vi är fem stycken.
So, this is similar to the construction of who is in your family? There are several girls in our family -> Vi är flera flickor i familjen.
- 880
Sort of – at least they can seem unexpected because of the same problem in English – you don't really want to say We are five or We are five girls in the family, or so native speakers have told me.
This feels a bit weird as a translation. We are five (people?). Stycken I'm not sure the translation but this seems like one of those times you have to keep reorganizing words I guess to get a sentence.
- 880
The main English translation is There are five of us, which is probably the most idiomatic way of saying it in English.
How about: Det star(pls disregard the hypo) fem av oss? Sounds like a possible construction but still marked ar wrong... -_
- 880
står with location only works if the location is mentioned.
E.g. Det står fem flaskor på bordet 'There are five bottles on the table'. Doesn't work without on the table.
Also, we use position verbs more often with objects than they do in English, but for people, it's pretty much the same. So if people står in Swedish, they'd probably stand in English as well.
With the caveat that I am not a native speaker - still learning and am terrible at actually speaking Swedish - I will give this a shot!
Att finnas is to exist - att finnas, finns, fanns, har funnits.
Att vara is to be - att vara, är, var, har varit.
So, "det finns" has more of a permanence to it than "det är" and tends to be used for things that are more... well... permanent! Whilst "det är" is used for more temporary things.
eg.
- "Det finns många hus i den här byn." (There are many houses in this village)
vs. "Det är en fågel i sovrummet!" (There is a bird in the bedroom!)
But it is not a hard and fast rule, just something that you become increasingly familiar with the more you use Swedish and sometimes the idiomatic usage is not obvious!
Grammatically they can be used interchangeably generally speaking so even if you get it wrong initially, you will likely be understood even if you sound a little odd!
- 218
We can say Vi är fem personer (We are five people) or Vi är fem stycken which might translate to We are a party of five. See also the comment from Baba7249 above, and the answers.
