Why is "caballo" not plural in the sentence "Algunas personas estan montando a caballo."

Question

Why is "caballo" not plural in the sentence "Algunas personas están montando a caballo."?

Or in this sentence "La carretera está llena de personas andando en bicicleta." Why is "bicicleta no plural?

My mom asked me this the other day, now we are both stumped!

Answer 1

• "montar a caballo" roughly translates to something like "to go horseback riding"
• "andar en bicicleta" can be translated as "to go on a bike ride"

This is why "horse" and "bicycle" do not become plural.

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Algunas personas están montando a caballo.

Some people are horse-back riding.

La carretera está llena de personas andando en bicicleta.

The road is full of people bike-riding.

Think about it in English: you wouldn't say "Some people are horses-back riding" or "The road is full of people bikes-riding" just because multiple bikes and horses are involved, would you? =]

Thanks, this helps a lot. - ToniSD, Aug 21, 2013

Answer 2

Hay muchos caballos en el campo. In this case we focus on the fact of many horses.

Algunas personas están montando a caballo. Here "caballo" complements the action of riding, so plural is not necessary. The same with "La carretera está llena de personas andando en bicicleta." But Él vende bicicletas because he sells more than just one.

Thanks for the help! - ToniSD, Aug 21, 2013

good answer - rogspax, Aug 21, 2013

Answer 3

It´s much like in English.

Plus ¨a caballo¨ is actually describing or modifying ¨montando¨, not, ¨algunas personas¨

Some people are mounted on horseback.

The second one is harder to compare to English, because we probably would use the plural ¨on bicycles¨ here. That is why it is important to remember that ¨en bicicleta¨ is modifying ¨andando¨, and not, ¨de personas¨

¡Gracias! - ToniSD, Aug 21, 2013

Good answer. - gringojrf, Aug 21, 2013

Answer 4

Well, in English and Spanish. you could say there are many people horse riding. = hay muchas personas montando a caballo

you cannot say horses riding = montando a caballos

would you say mounting (on) horses?

One person cannot mount more than 1 horse at a time. Right?

Thanks! - ToniSD, Aug 21, 2013

No. But we would say: There are many people riding horses. - gringojrf, Aug 21, 2013

I wish I had a better explanation for this one Chileno. One of those two examples we would use in singular just like you do in spanish, and the other, we would say on horses, in plural. Languages are sure not consistent, or consistently logical. - rogspax, Aug 21, 2013

But, if we say ¨on horseback¨ which might well be a better translation, well, then we´re back to singular. Go figure. - rogspax, Aug 21, 2013

There you go rogspax - chileno, Aug 21, 2013