In this sentence: “La mayoría de sus calles no tienen nombre.”
If the sentence means “the majority of its streets don’t have names”, why is nombre singular and not plural?
If the sentence means : “the majority of its streets don’t have a name”, why is the indefinite article “un” not used for “a”?
Reading A1, Monuments, Tourism & Vacations, Listening or Seeing A1
Hola Samantha S.
Great question! In Spanish, when referring to something in a general sense, it is common to use the singular form without an article. In the sentence "La mayoría de sus calles no tienen nombre", "nombre" is used in the singular to express that the majority of the streets do not have 'a name' or 'any name' without specifying or counting names.
If we translated this sentence more literally, it would be: 'The majority of its streets don't have a name.' The absence of the article "un" ('a') is because, in Spanish, when speaking about something in a general or indefinite way (like 'name' in this context), the article is often omitted.
If you were to say "no tienen un nombre", it would imply more specificity, as if each street is missing a specific or particular name, which is not the intended meaning here. The focus is on the general state of not having names at all.
I hope this clarifies things! Let me know if you need further examples or explanations.
Feliz semana
Silvia
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