Elementary - Three Wise Men

Is it possible to say "Hay tres" instead of "Son tres"?

Great question, jaimemayo! 

"Hay tres" is the standard way to talk about the existence of three things.  "Hay" indicates existence. 

"Son tres," uses "ser," which is the way you talk about a set group of people.  For example, when you walk into a restaurant, the host asks "¿Cuántos son?" as in 'how many people in your set group.' Your answer is "Somos cinco," 'we are a set group of five.' 

In this dialog, we're talking about not just any gathering of random kings, but a specific set group:  namely, THE Three Kings. 

So if you ask me 'how many basketball players are on the court right now?' I might answer with 'hay.'

But if you ask me 'who were the starters for the 96 Supersonics?' I would answer with "ser." 

Son... fueron... Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Nate McMillan, Detlef Schremp, y Hersey Hawkins....

JP, I was just about to answer that referring to the restaurant podcast :P

But I had no idea the three wise men was a big thing in latin culture, in england its basically absent apart from the odd story you hear in primary school.

Great, JP!

Good to see some math cropping up in these lessons.

Now we have a ven diagram of basketball players, all players and a specific subset of players. 

hay (all players) and son (these players)

May we assume that this analogy carries over to  math and logic?

¿Puedes usar "por" en vez de "en," como "van por camello"?

Hola xkristax91,

When talking about transportation, it is more common to use 'en'.

gracias cutthatcity!

cutthatcity xkristax91

I am not saying that cutthatcity is wrong, I never hear if “por” or “en” is more common, but it is perfectly expectable to so “van por bus”, see the link.  I assume that the same is true about “van por camello”.

The only reason I asked is because I have often come across in Spanish class phrases like "viajo por avion" and thought it could be used as well.

Gracias stevestrv, my answer was a bit misleading.

That's interesting, I never heard about this use of "por". I'm not saying that it is wrong to say "viajar por avión", but I guess it's more common to say "viajar en avión".

Google hits for "viajar en avión": 129.000

Google hits for "viajar por avión": 7.090

Google hits for "viajé en avión": 116.000

Google hits for "viajé por avión": 5.810

Google hits for "viajo en avión": 9.320

Google hits for "viajo por avión": 493

En el español peninsular, yo nunca he visto la palabra ´por´con el verbo ´ir´. Se suele usar "en".

A pesar de esto, he leído que sólo se debería usar ´por´con los medios de transporte de tamaño más grande por ejemplo el avión o el barco.  ¿Hay alguien que sepa si esto es verdad?

Sin embargo, se puede usar "en" con todos los medios de transporte salvo ir a pie.

http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/porpara.htm

This website discusses some of the uses of por and cites one of the uses of por as "for means of communication or transportation"

Martanillo,

Looking at your searches it seems that the use of "en" is more common though.

Hola Todos!

He estado en Puerto Rico por el día de los reyes y era algo muy especial. Yo nunca había visto algo como así...fuimos a una gran fiesta en la casa de nuestros vecinos y creo que fueron mas que 100 personas! ellos tenien musica, comida y coquitos para toda la gente! al media noche, los Reyes llegaron en caballo con pequeño regalos para todas las mujeres! Por la mañana, los niños estaba buscando regalos en la casa. era un experiencia fantastica!

Hi everybody, usually IR+EN for means of transportation.Of course there are some exceptions.

- ir en avión.

- ir en barco.

- ir en coche.

- ir en autobús.

- ir en moto.

- ir en bici.

- ir en taxi.

- ir a caballo.

- ir a pie.

Esti
Welcome back.
Are you saying that you wouldn’t say something like voy por bus.  And if so, is it possible that “ir por” is used in Latin America because I am pretty sure that I have heard it used.  Of course if I am wrong it wouldn't be the first time.
Thank you

stevestrv,

I´ve asked my Mexican friend Leo, and he agree with me on the use of the preposition EN after verb IR.

Esti

Thank you

Am I correct in saying that 'son' can also be used to describe a price?

E.g. son diez euros

cutthatcity

si, puedes decir "son diez euros"

o "cuesta diez euros"

o "solamente diez euros"

xkristax91, cutthatcity, stevestrv, dubhais, esti:

Thus, I guess the use of "ir por" + means of transportation is Spanglish. It's not correct, but you'll hear it, in particular in the US. :)

Martnillo

Maybe it’s Spanglish or maybe it’s just wrong.  But I am going to continue to say things like “voy a mi trabajo por bus” because it may be wrong but it fells so right.