"we are in five"

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Mars80
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"we are in five"

Postby Mars80 » 2016-08-11, 15:37

I saw this question asked on a linguistic survey that apparently was done in a now defunct forum. Whether or not "we are in five" sounds okay to you. Does anyone have any idea what this means? I have no idea what "we are in five" is even supposed to mean.

2. Do the following sentences sound okay to you? (Don't worry about "technically" correct grammar, just tell me if these sound allright in your opinion, or if you use them.)

We are in five.


http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2005/6224.htm

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Re: "we are in five"

Postby linguoboy » 2016-08-11, 15:40

This sounds to me like broadcasters shorthand. Like I can imagine a countdown to air going "We are in five...four...three...two...one...[points silently]."
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Re: "we are in five"

Postby Saim » 2016-08-11, 15:42

No, I've never heard this expression in English.

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Re: "we are in five"

Postby OldBoring » 2016-08-11, 15:49

This is a common mistake that Romance language speakers make.

We are in five = Noi siamo in cinque = We are five people
We ate the cake in five = Abbiamo mangiato la torta in cinque = We ate the cake among five (?) = We were five people and ate the cake.

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Re: "we are in five"

Postby linguoboy » 2016-08-11, 15:51

OldBoring wrote:We ate the cake in five = Abbiamo mangiato la torta in cinque = We ate the cake among five (?) = We were five people and ate the cake.

"Five of us ate the cake", "We split the cake among the five of us"
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Re: "we are in five"

Postby Dormouse559 » 2016-08-11, 16:20

"The five of us ate the cake". "We five ate the cake".
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Re: "we are in five"

Postby Saim » 2016-08-11, 17:45

OldBoring wrote:This is a common mistake that Romance language speakers make.

We are in five = Noi siamo in cinque = We are five people


I don't think this works in Catalan or Spanish. I've only ever heard:

(ca) som cinc
(es) somos cinco

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Re: "we are in five"

Postby OldBoring » 2016-08-12, 16:39

Saim wrote:I don't think this works in Catalan or Spanish. I've only ever heard:

(ca) som cinc
(es) somos cinco

My bad. I didn't know the other Romance languages were different.
How do you say "Five of us ate the cake" in Spanish and Catalan?

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Re: "we are in five"

Postby Saim » 2016-08-15, 10:04

OldBoring wrote:
Saim wrote:I don't think this works in Catalan or Spanish. I've only ever heard:

(ca) som cinc
(es) somos cinco

My bad. I didn't know the other Romance languages were different.
How do you say "Five of us ate the cake" in Spanish and Catalan?


Like this I think:

(ca) Els cinc vam menjar el pastís
(es) Los cinco comimos el pastel

or

(ca) Ens vam menjar el pastís entre tots cinc
(es) Nos comimos el pastel entre los cinco

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Re: "we are in five"

Postby Bubulus » 2016-08-15, 20:10

Saim wrote:
OldBoring wrote:This is a common mistake that Romance language speakers make.

We are in five = Noi siamo in cinque = We are five people


I don't think this works in Catalan or Spanish. I've only ever heard:

(ca) som cinc
(es) somos cinco

Also estamos cinco for Spanish.

In spoken Spanish, probably in all dialects, you can also hear habemos cinco. (One of those curious cases where the spoken language maintains an archaic conjugation, abandoned in the standard language. I think it's normally only used for 1PL though, so you can't say *habéis cinco ahí nor **haben/han cinco ahí. However, you can use any person for the rest of the tenses in spoken language: habíais cinco ahí; solo habrán cinco; etc.)

French has on est cinq and nous sommes cinq.
Saim wrote:Like this I think:

(ca) Els cinc vam menjar el pastís
(es) Los cinco comimos el pastel

or

(ca) Ens vam menjar el pastís entre tots cinc
(es) Nos comimos el pastel entre los cinco

Yeah. Also: nosotros cinco nos comimos el pastel.

I have been informed by a native speaker of the following options for French:
On a mangé le gâteau à cinq. (similar to Italian here!)
Nos avons mangé le gâteau tous les cinq.
On a mangé le gâteau tous cinq.


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