Word order

[Bookmark]

Hello. This is a question about word order.

We say, "She has been to Italy a number of times."
Can we also say, "She has been a number of times to Italy." ??

Thank you in advance.

 

[emsr2d2]

In my opinion, if you say that, it will quickly mark you out as a non-native speaker. It is understandable so we would know what you mean, but it's not natural. It's not grammatically incorrect but it is a rarely used construction.

 

[Bookmark]

Thank you very much!

 

[BrunaBC]

would 'many times' , 'several times' fix it?

 

[bhaisahab]

would 'many times' , 'several times' fix it?

No.

 

[BrunaBC]

So if I want to say that I've been to some place many times, how am I supposed to say it? since the example [she has

been to Italy many times] isnt' natural, then I suppose that saying I've been there many times isn't natural as well.

 

[CarloSsS]

So if I want to say that I've been to some place many times, how am I supposed to say it? since the example [she has

been to Italy many times] isnt' natural, then I suppose that saying I've been there many times isn't natural as well.

NOT A TEACHER

I don't see anything unnatural about "I've been there many/several times".
However, the sentence "She has been a number of times to Italy." is unnatural as emsr stated in #2.

 

[emsr2d2]

So if I want to say that I've been to some place many times, how am I supposed to say it? since the example [she has

been to Italy many times] isnt' natural, then I suppose that saying I've been there many times isn't natural as well.

No-one said that putting "a number of times", "many times" etc at the end of the sentence was unnatural. The very first sentence you quoted "She has been to Italy a number of times" is absolutely fine.

She has been to Italy a number of times.
I have been on holiday many times.
They have visited Greece several times.

The word order that I said was unnatural was when you put "many/several/a number of + times" in the middle of the sentence, before the destination.

 

[5jj]

since the example [she has been to Italy many times] isnt' natural, then I suppose that saying I've been there many times isn't natural as well.

bhai did not say that 'She has been to italy many times' was unnatural.

 

[BrunaBC]

Oh, I see it. Sorry. I guess I misread it.