¿Vida o vidas, boda o bodas? - singular v. plural

Question

I remember my high school Spanish teacher telling us that you often use the singular in Spanish where you would use the plural in English. For example:

Three people lost their lives in the accident - Tres personas perdieron la vida en el accidente.

He said that this is true because each person only has one life to lose, regardless of how many people died. I've always heard it said this way.

Now, assuming I have two daughters, and assuming they have only one wedding each, would I say:

...my daughters' weddings - ...la boda de mis hijas, o ...las bodas de mis hijas

Answer 1

It doesn't look like to many bites on this one so I will give it a shot. I would personally say, "Las bodas de mis hijas" because there are both two daughters and two weddings which separate it out from what your teacher told you those many years ago. I hope this helps!!

Answer 2

I agree with Jason. If I heard "la boda de mis hijas", I would immediately think of a single ceremony in which both girls got married.

Answer 3

Jason was / is right here because "la vida" is not treated as a noun with posession. "Las bodas" is correct because there is posession of "mis hijas."

Answer 4

La boda de mi hija is correct. You can say Las bodas de plata de mi hija. That's different altogether.

Answer 5

The best answer, in my opinion, is "la boda de cada una de mis hijas".