"To choose from"?

Question

I'm trying to say "Factories began making toys in the 1800s, and children could choose between many more playthings than in earlier times." Is this correct?

"Fábricas empezaron a hacer juguetes en el siglo XIX, y niños pudieron escoger entre mas juguetes que en tiempos anteriores."

I don't like repeating "juguetes" twice in one sentence but I'm having trouble phrasing that part. It is not important to me to have an exact translation but I would like it to be close.

Answer 1

Hi, Bailarina, Here are my offerings for your sentence. My corrections are in the bold type.

"Las Fábricas empezaron a hacer juguetes en el siglo XIX, y los niños podían escoger entre más de ellos que en tiempos anteriores."

By using "más de ellos" ("more of them", we avoid using "juguetes" a second time)

I used "podían" instead of "pudieron", because the meaning of the verb "poder" changes to "managed to" or "got to" instead of "were able to, or "could". Sometimes Spanish gets a little sneaky in the meanings of some verbs when used in the preterite.

Your Spanish is quite good. Just remember to use the definite article when the subject of a sentence is a noun such as "niños" You will notice I added "los" to "niños" Also "Las" fábricas.

I hope this works for you. ??

Mine is just an add-on to yours. - annierats, Jan 26, 2015

Thanks very much! This was very helpful :) - bailarina95, Jan 27, 2015

Hola , Daniela :) - FELIZ77, Jan 27, 2015

Answer 2

Jut some further vocabulary/ suggestions, in order to avoid repetition.

Las fábricas empezaron a manufacturar juguetes... y los niñosya tenían un surtido mucho más grande que antes para entresacar/elegir a sus juguetes.

Daniela, I'm not sure about the ' para'? - annierats, Jan 26, 2015

I don't mind the "para" it's the" entresacar" I don't get. - Daniela2041, Jan 26, 2015

Answer 3

plaything? whats that?

toys - chileno, Jan 27, 2015