# There were only ten minutes remaining.



## usingenglish

Hola.

¿Cómo se traduce esta frase?

- There were only ten minutes remaining.

Gracias.


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## lapot

"Sólo quedaban 10 minutos"


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## charles24

usingenglish said:


> Hola.
> 
> ¿Cómo se traduce esta frase?
> 
> - There were only ten minutes remaining.
> 
> Gracias.


 
Mejor decir ' There *was* only ten minutes remaining'

La diferencia entre ingles y español es que en ingles la hora no se dice en plural. Por ejemplo si una persona te pregunta en español que ¿que hora es? puedes decir 'son las cinco' . En ingles no se dice 'they are five o'clock pero se dice *'it* is 5 o'clock'. 

Espero que te haya ayudado.


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## jaxavi

But you are talking about minutes which are countable, not the time. Since it is plural it should be, "There were only ten minutes remaining".


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## charles24

jaxavi said:


> But you are talking about minutes which are countable, not the time. Since it is plural it should be, "There were only ten minutes remaining".


 
Very interesting.

If you can say 'there were 10 minutes remaining' why is it not okay to say that 'there were 3 hours remaining'? 

Time whether remaining or at the time of discussion is an abstract in english and it is not usually expressed in plural. It just sounds strange.


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## jaxavi

But you can say "there were 3 hours remaining". You are confusing telling the time as in, it is 3 o'clock and the unit of time as a measurement.
Whether seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, and so on, they are countable units.


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## usingenglish

Hola.

Gracias por la traducción.

La frase ( There were only ten minutes remaining.) es correcta. La he copiado del diccionario Advanced Oxford.

Un saludo.


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## charles24

usingenglish said:


> Hola.
> 
> Gracias por la traducción.
> 
> La frase ( There were only ten minutes remaining.) es correcta. La he copiado del diccionario Advanced Oxford.
> 
> Un saludo.


 
Muy interesante.

Soy americano y nací en los estados unidos y también he vivido por toda mi vida en los estados unidos y nunca he oído que se dice (se diga?) 'there were .... minutes remaining'. Eso significa que hay personas que hablan ingles que todavía no saben todo.

Muy interesante, te digo.


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## gobo

charles24 said:


> Muy interesante.
> 
> Soy americano y nací en los estados unidos y también he vivido por toda mi vida en los estados unidos y nunca he oído que se dice (se diga?) 'there were .... minutes remaining'. Eso significa que hay personas que hablan ingles que todavía no saben todo.


Sí, pero Estados Unidos no es el único lugar donde se habla inglés , y creo que encontrarás que en la mayoría de los otros lugares "there *were *X minutes remaining" se dice, es correcto y de hecho con "was" puede sonar raro.

También se dice aquí: "U2 *are *an Irish group", "Manchester United *are *playing well", "My family *are *coming over" y otra cosas así, que también son correctas aunque no se digan al otro lado del Atlántico (bueno, quizás en Canadá, no estoy seguro).


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## Sprache

charles24 said:


> Muy interesante.
> 
> Soy americano y nací en los estados unidos y también he vivido por toda mi vida en los estados unidos y nunca he oído que se dice (se diga?) 'there were .... minutes remaining'. Eso significa que hay personas que hablan ingles que todavía no saben todo.
> 
> Muy interesante, te digo.


Yo también nací en Estados Unidos y lo de _there was_ me suena horroroso. Seguro que hay que decir _there were _en este caso.


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## chamyto

Siendo contable plural yo también usaría " were "


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## pelusazez

I'd use " were" too


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## NewdestinyX

There *was* 10 minutes remaining. - is 'incorrect' in any English speaking nation. The fact that people may use something doesn't make it correct. 10 minutes, anywhere in the world is a countable unit as others have said -- therefore only the 'plural', were, is correct.

If someone has a grammar book showing 'was' to be correct there -- please share it with us. It sounds horrible and no educated person I know would use 'was'... but then everyone in my part of the country and even newscasters on national news shows say -- 'for you and *I*' which is 'horribly wrong' and yet it's creeped into English grammar as an overcorrection.

Chao,
Grant


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## NewdestinyX

usingenglish said:


> Hola.
> 
> ¿Cómo se traduce esta frase?
> 
> - There were only ten minutes remaining.
> 
> Gracias.



In one of its uses the infinitive 'quedar' gets translated to English as:
For there to be remaining...../For there to remain..

Little stilted in the English but it gives you the idea of how the Spanish moves over to English word order-wise..


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## VivaReggaeton88

NewdestinyX said:


> There *was* 10 minutes remaining. - is 'incorrect' in any English speaking nation. The fact that people may use something doesn't make it correct. 10 minutes, anywhere in the world is a countable unit as others have said -- therefore only the 'plural', were, is correct.
> 
> If someone has a grammar book showing 'was' to be correct there -- please share it with us. It sounds horrible and no educated person I know would use 'was'... but then everyone in my part of the country and even newscasters on national news shows say -- 'for you and *I*' which is 'horribly wrong' and yet it's creeped into English grammar as an overcorrection.
> 
> Chao,
> Grant



De acuerdo.

There *were* 10 minutes remaining.
There *were* 3 hours remaining.

My family *is* coming over, however, The people in my family *are* coming over.


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## VivaReggaeton88

gobo said:


> Sí, pero Estados Unidos no es el único lugar donde se habla inglés , y creo que encontrarás que en la mayoría de los otros lugares "there *were *X minutes remaining" se dice, es correcto y de hecho con "was" puede sonar raro.
> 
> También se dice aquí: "U2 *are *an Irish group", "Manchester United *are *playing well", "My family *are *coming over" y otra cosas así, que también son correctas aunque no se digan al otro lado del Atlántico (bueno, quizás en Canadá, no estoy seguro).



My family *are *coming over. 
-> No importa donde esté, esa frase no es correcta.


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## NewdestinyX

VivaReggaeton88 said:


> My family *are *coming over.
> -> No importa donde esté, esa frase no es correcta.


Viva..,
 I'm pretty sure, in British English, 'family' is a plural noun like _people_. So you may be wrong on that one. And I think it can be plural in American English too.. Take a look at the Google examples. I was blown away.

*Web* Video 
 Results *1* - *10* of about *306,000* for *"my family are"*
And to my ears .. "My family are." doesn't sound as horrible as There 'was' 10 minutes remaining.

Grant


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## roanheads

To keep " stirring it " , referring to #13,  " it's creeped " sounds rough. At least in this neck of the woods, the past participle of the verb to creep is " crept ".
Saludos.


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## Sprache

roanheads said:


> To keep " stirring it " , referring to #13, " it's creeped " sounds rough. At least in this neck of the woods, the past participle of the verb to creep is " crept ".
> Saludos.


I agree. I always used _crept_ and _creeped_ sounds unusual to me. But maybe it's acceptable as well?




VivaReggaeton88 said:


> My family *are *coming over.
> -> No importa donde esté, esa frase no es correcta.


Although it sounds very "bad" to my American ears, I disagree. There is no doubt that it's correct and in common usage in British English.


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## roanheads

Common usage, again in these parts,---
The family is coming over. ( as a unit )
The families are coming over. ( several different families )
Saludos.


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## FromPA

charles24 said:


> Muy interesante.
> 
> Soy americano y nací en los estados unidos y también he vivido por toda mi vida en los estados unidos y nunca he oído que se dice (se diga?) 'there were .... minutes remaining'. Eso significa que hay personas que hablan ingles que todavía no saben todo.
> 
> Muy interesante, te digo.


 
I too have lived in the US all my life, and we always say "there were...hours/minutes remaining." I have never heard anyone ever express it in the singular...until now.


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## roanheads

FromPA,
De acuerdo contigo.
Saludos.


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## charles24

You guys might probably be right but I just never thought of it like that. 

I did a search on-line and I it was interesting to find out that there were several people that might be making the same mistake also. I saw examples of singular and plural. Here are some of the singular uses that I found. 

Some examples 

There's literally minutes left......
http://www.theinsider.com/news/555178_Because_there_s_literally_minutes_left_to_..._Mark_Ruffalo

There's literally only minutes....
http://www.productlaunchformularevi...s-shut-for-good-on-product-launch-formula-20/

There's like 10 minutes left......
http://zolora.tumblr.com/post/87783723/okay-theres-like-10-minutes-left-in-gratuitous

Washing machine stops when there is 19 minutes ....
http://www.fixya.com/support/t121714-washing_machine_stops_when_19_minutes

If there is only 5 minutes left......
http://news.hongen.com/news/show_33_3349.html

Why was there only 8 minutes left.......?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090404152118AAmFeKM


This is not about trying to say that I am right because I probably am wrong but it is just interesting to see that other people might be making the same mistake also and don't realize it.


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## FromPA

charles24 said:


> You guys might probably be right but I just never thought of it like that.
> 
> I did a search on-line and I it was interesting to find out that there were several people that might be making the same mistake also. I saw examples of singular and plural. Here are some of the singular uses that I found.
> 
> Some examples
> 
> There's literally minutes left......
> http://www.theinsider.com/news/555178_Because_there_s_literally_minutes_left_to_..._Mark_Ruffalo
> 
> There's literally only minutes....
> http://www.productlaunchformularevi...s-shut-for-good-on-product-launch-formula-20/
> 
> There's like 10 minutes left......
> http://zolora.tumblr.com/post/87783723/okay-theres-like-10-minutes-left-in-gratuitous
> 
> Washing machine stops when there is 19 minutes ....
> http://www.fixya.com/support/t121714-washing_machine_stops_when_19_minutes
> 
> If there is only 5 minutes left......
> http://news.hongen.com/news/show_33_3349.html
> 
> Why was there only 8 minutes left.......?
> http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090404152118AAmFeKM
> 
> 
> This is not about trying to say that I am right because I probably am wrong but it is just interesting to see that other people might be making the same mistake also and don't realize it.


 
All of your examples involve the use of the impersonal construction "there is/are," and that's a whole other can of worms.  I think most of us are guilty of falling into that error in our every day speech.


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## NewdestinyX

FromPA said:


> All of your examples involve the use of the impersonal construction "there is/are," and that's a whole other can of worms.  I think most of us are guilty of falling into that error in our every day speech.


Actually the original sentence we're talking about used the impersonal "There is/are/was/were".. That's been the topic of the whole thread.

There's no really easy way to make a 'contraction' of 'there are/were'.. It's probably acceptable to write "there're".. But it looks weird and it's even harder to pronounce. I think folks use 'there's' because it's easier on the tongue - even when there's a plural noun. But when you intent to use both words without a contraction then you need to match singularity and plurality. It's incorrect to not match them.

Chao,
Grant


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## FromPA

NewdestinyX said:


> Actually the original sentence we're talking about used the impersonal "There is/are/was/were".. That's been the topic of the whole thread.
> 
> There's no really easy way to make a 'contraction' of 'there are/were'.. It's probably acceptable to write "there're".. But it looks weird and it's even harder to pronounce. I think folks use 'there's' because it's easier on the tongue - even when there's a plural noun. But when you intent to use both words without a contraction then you need to match singularity and plurality. It's incorrect to not match them.
> 
> Chao,
> Grant


 
I agree completely.  The common error (which is becoming common usage) occurs in the present tense when using the contracted form.


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## obz

My family *is* coming over. ( unit )
My family, *they are *coming over. (the lot of them, now referring to the members)

There *were *only 10 minutes left. (countable units, plural)
There *was *only about 10 minutes between event 1 and 2. (a measure, single unit between 2 things)


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## NewdestinyX

obz said:


> My family *is* coming over. ( unit )
> My family, *they are *coming over. (the lot of them, now referring to the members)
> 
> There *were *only 10 minutes left. (countable units, plural)
> There *was *only about 10 minutes between event 1 and 2. (a measure, single unit between 2 things)



"Are" is still used in your sentence 1 in Britain.

In your last sentence, only 'were' is correct. ('was' is said -- as we all know)

There 'was' a short period of time between event 1 and 2. ("was" is correct there of course).


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