Do you say “there were” or “there were” many people? The RAE responds

Some doubts usually arise from the use of Spanish. Especially if the speaker or writer wants to use it correctly, according to grammatical rules.

It goes without saying that Spanish, spoken by 600 million people worldwide, It has rules established by different Academies.

AS, Many expressions are directly incorrect, even if they sound good to the ears.

This is what happens with this form of the verb haber. Because it is natural to go from singular to plural, especially to the past, in the wrong way.

Let’s see what the RAE tells us about this confusion that often arises.

Do you say “there were” or “there were” many people? The RAE responds

The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) explains it. “The verb form “hubieron” is the one that corresponds to the third person plural of the present perfect or indicative past of the verb haber.

For this reason, he adds, it must be used «to form, followed by the participle of the verb that is conjugated, the third person plural of the compound tense called past or ante of the indicative».

“This tense indicates that the action denoted by the verb occurred at a time immediately preceding another action that also occurred in the past,” describes the RAE.

To better understand, some examples:

• “When everyone was done, they went home.”
• “As soon as they crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut.”

This verb tense is always preceded by connections such as “when, as soon as, once, after, until, then, therefore, not well or barely”.

For the tranquility of the Spaniards, The RAE states that “it is practically not used in the oral language and is now rare even in the written language”.

The present perfect or past indicative (“When everyone was done, they went home.”) or the indicative preterite or antecopreterite (“As soon as they crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut.”) are more common.

The form “hubieron” appears in the “third person plural of the present perfect or preterite indicative of the verbal periphrasis haber de + infinitive, which denotes obligation or necessity and is equivalent to the more common today tener que + infinitive”.

For example, “the director and his crew had to visit many locations before finding the right ones for the film.”

The incorrect use of “hubieron” appears when the verb haber is used to “denote the presence or existence of people or things, since with this value haber is impersonal and, as such, devoid of subject (the nominal element that appears next to the verb is the direct object) and is used only in the third person singular.”

Therefore, the RAE clarifies: It is not correct to say, or write: “There were many volunteers to carry out that mission” or “There were no problems getting to the concert”.

The correct sentences are:

• “There were many volunteers to carry out that mission” e
• “There were no problems getting to the concert.”