Sentence of the day - May 14th

Question

Había mucha gente en la carretera porque alguien decía haber visto un oso en el río.

= There were many people on the road because somebody said that they had seen a bear in the river.

This has verb usage that is not seen a lot so thought I would share.

Answer 1

So far two completely different constructions for this sentence. The version by JulianChivis is the one I would go along with from my lessons, but this is where we need an Admin. person to step in please to say which is correct otherwise some of us could be learning the wrong thing Thanks

Answer 2

Is there something in particular you would like to share about the verb usage in this sentence? Maybe you could explain further to encourage more participation.

A sentence of the day sounds like a good idea.

These sentences I am sharing are already accepted by experts from another site I pay for. I only want others to see how you can use all the words you have learned to date and some are really great sentences. - foxluv, May 16, 2010

Answer 3

Try it like this: Había mucha gente en la carretera porque alguien dijo que había visto un oso en el río.

Answer 4

Would you truly say "many people" like this? Most folk would say "a lot" or "a whole lot" or "lots of" I think. So why translate to "many"?

that does not look so odd to me, but then I am a talking dog - nizhoni1, May 14, 2010

Yes I agree with Nizhoni. This sounds very natural to me also. I think I prefer many to "lots". But that is just me. :) - Nicole-B, May 14, 2010