ellos vendían ropas

Question

I thought it was always ropa, singular & plural. That sentence is on one of my Learn in Your Car CD's. Is it wrong or could ropas mean an assortment of clothes'

Answer 1

Thanks everyone, I'm surprised they would use ropas in teaching Spanish, since it isn't that common.

Answer 2

Ropas is the plural of ropa. We can use both expressions, "vendían ropa" or "vendían ropas" but it's no so usual to hear the last one. It's true what James Santiago wrote, it's more usual to use "ropas" in literature.

Answer 3

Natasha said:

lazarus1907 said:

English has also collective nouns that can be used in plural if they refer to different collectives, like "I have three fish" (three units), or "there are many fishes in the river" (different species). You can talk about a whole set of clothes as "ropa", viewed as a whole, or "ropas" to differentiate among different subsets. It all depends on what you want to say, but it is true that "ropas" is not used very often. Also, as stated in James' quote, "ropa" (a Germanic word related to "robar") is also used in plural sometimes, and it is correct.

Most of us avoid the difficulty altogether by saying, "There are many kinds of fish in the river."

Unfortunately, there also many who quite happily say "I have three fishes." (Would that there were more who were actually aware of the possibility of difficulty!)

Answer 4

Natasha said:

Most of us avoid the difficulty altogether by saying, "There are many kinds of fish in the river."

I know: in Spanish we do the same by saying "Muchos tipos de ropa".

Answer 5

lazarus1907 said:

English has also collective nouns that can be used in plural if they refer to different collectives, like "I have three fish" (three units), or "there are many fishes in the river" (different species). You can talk about a whole set of clothes as "ropa", viewed as a whole, or "ropas" to differentiate among different subsets. It all depends on what you want to say, but it is true that "ropas" is not used very often. Also, as stated in James' quote, "ropa" (a Germanic word related to "robar") is also used in plural sometimes, and it is correct.

Most of us avoid the difficulty altogether by saying, "There are many kinds of fish in the river."

Answer 6

English has also collective nouns that can be used in plural if they refer to different collectives, like "I have three fish" (three units), or "there are many fishes in the river" (different species). You can talk about a whole set of clothes as "ropa", viewed as a whole, or "ropas" to differentiate among different subsets. It all depends on what you want to say, but it is true that "ropas" is not used very often.

Also, as stated in James' quote, "ropa" (a Germanic word related to "robar") is also used in plural sometimes, and it is correct.

Answer 7

I would consider it a mistake, but here is an interesting comment from WR:

Ropa es un sustantivo singular, pero que tiene una connotación en plural, por ej.: la ropa de esa tienda es preciosa, el verbo se usa en singular, pero se refiere a varias prendas de ropa (ahí puedes tener un plural). En todo caso, creo que sí puedes ver la palabra "ropas" en un sentido más literario o poético, por ej.: ...se despojó de sus ropas al ver la pobreza de aquel lugar...