Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi everyone,

Could you, please please, help me translate this sentence...or explain it:

..And there are anything up to sort of thirty-five of us meet up, once a year, in one or other of the houses, and have this marvellous lunch.[/b]

I absolutely DO NOT understand the sentence, I have no idea why there is there ARE anything...up to sort of 35 of us...

Gosh...I really need help. Thank you in advance!

.And there are anything up to sort of thirty-five of us meet up, once a year, in one or other of the houses, and have this marvellous lunch.[/b]

I think it is a story of a group of people who meet for lunch. They only meet once a year. They meet in a different house each time so they could meet in 35 different places. There are 35 possible members of the group although it sounds like the author is not exactly sure of the number. The person who hosts the lunch does a great job.


It might be easier if the author had written:
There are up to thirty five of us who meet in one or another's house, once a year and have a marvelous lunch.

It sounds to me to have been spoken, rather than written. When speaking, people often change what they are saying mid-sentence, and that makes it seem as if they are using grammar incorrectly.


Imagine it this way. The words in [ ] are thoughts and the words in italics are what he/she says.

[There are 35 people who meet up once a year]:.....And there are
[Well, not exactly 35. Up to 35 people, I guess]:......anything up to, sort of
[Yeah, that's right. About 35 of us meet up]:............thirty-five of us meet up
[We meet up once a year]:.......................................once a year
etc... etc...

So the speaker changed from talking about 'there are 35 people' to '35 people meet up' mid-thought.


Final result:
A group of 30-35 people, including me, meet each other, once a year, in one of many houses that our group own (or work with), and have lunch together.

.