Is Paralee correct re. "de niños"?

Question

In the lesson on the imperfect tense, "Paralee translates De niño, jugaba on muñecas" as "As a child, I played with dolls."

But someone I respect very much on SD just gave this in an answer: "Cuando era niña era obligatorio para todas las mujeres llevar un sombrero a la iglesia; y cada pueblo tenía su propio sombrerero." and translated it as: When I was a child it was compulsory for all women to wear a hat to church and each town had it's own milliner.

"Cuando era niña" seems to make more sense. Which is correct?

Answer 1

Both constructions are correct. If I'm not mistaken, we have touched on this subject before, so you may want to do a search and see if you can find the previous thread(s) relating to that very same lesson.

In any event, it is equally correct to say: "de niño /niña", "de viejo" or "cuando era niño /niña", "cuando era viejo". Which one you use is a matter of custom and personal preference.

People also use: "cuando niña", "cuando viejo" - but those sound a bit funny to my ears.

Gracias - mtmonadnock, Jan 28, 2012

Answer 2

Just as in English you can say "As a child, I ..." / "When I was a child, I ..."

Answer 3

Check out the RAE entry for the preposition "de:"

14). prep. U. con ciertos nombres para determinar el tiempo en que sucede algo.

De madrugada. De mañana. De noche. De viejo. De niño.

_{Real Academia Española © Todos los derechos reservados}

Here, it tells us that when followed by certain nouns, it can be used to determine the time at which something occurred (i.e. when something occurred).