English · Word pair Candidate A1

there were

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

used to indicate the existence of something in the past

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

chỉ sự tồn tại của một thứ trong quá khứ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: existence in the past

Examples

There were fifty entries for the race.Có 20 thí sinh trong cuộc cạnh tranh.

There were some guests waiting in the drawing room.Có vài người khách đang đợi trong phòng vẽ.

Tatoeba sentence #49720 (CC BY 2.0 FR, tatoeba.org, retrieved 2026-07-31)

Sources & notes

Everyday learner phrase (CEFR A1); level cross-referenced from published learner lists. Definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “there were” mean?

used to indicate the existence of something in the past Literally: existence in the past

Is “there were” formal or informal?

there were is generally neutral.