They were vs there were?
Hi, everyone.
In a chat section of a car racing game, a person says that I have unlocked two cars. I replied, "Actually, there were three cars which I have unlocked."
Should I have said, "Actually, they were three cars which I have unlocked."?
What's the difference in meaning between the two?
Top answer
" "there were ~" expresses the past existence of something, in this case the existence of "three cars which I have unlocked". This does have the right sort of meaning in the context, but in practice the sentence feels slightly clumsy. Also, past tense "there were" is not a great match with the present perfect tense that follows.
- " "there were ~" expresses the past existence of something, in this case the existence of "three cars which I have unlocked".
- This does have the right sort of meaning in the context, but in practice the sentence feels slightly clumsy.
- Also, past tense "there were" is not a great match with the present perfect tense that follows.
- It would be easier and neater to reply "Actually I have unlocked three".
- " "they were ~" is telling more about three things that have already been mentioned or are known from context.
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silak12"Actually, there were three cars which I have unlocked."
"there were ~" expresses the past existence of something, in this case the existence of "three cars which I have unlocked". This does have the right sort of meaning in the context, but in practice the sentence feels slightly clumsy. Also, past tense "there were" is not a great match with the pr
0silak12Should I have said, "Actually, they were three cars which I have unlocked."?
No. In the given context, "they" needs an exact (definite) referent that occurred previously in the conversation. The only thing it can mean here is "two cars" because that's the only thing previously mentioned (a person says that I have unlocked two cars).
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