Both, ¿posición?

[irmamar]

Los dos nacieron en la misma ciudad.

They both were born in the same city.
or
They were both born in the same city.


Thanks.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by irmamar

Los dos nacieron en la misma ciudad.

They both were born in the same city.
or
They were both born in the same city.


Thanks.

...............

[irmamar]

Vaya.

Thanks.

[Rusty]

Not to disagree with Perikles, but both constructs are used here in America. I'm sure that in one region or another there may be a preference for word order, but I have heard and used both of the sentences you proposed.

In fact, each of these sentences conveys the exact same meaning:

Both were born in the same city.
Both of them were born in the same city.
They were both born in the same city.
They both were born in the same city.

[tacuba]

I agree with Rusty. "They both were born in the same city" sound just fine.

I'm curious Perikles, why do you find this usage incorrect? Is it a regional thing?

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Both were born in the same city.
Both of them were born in the same city.
They were both born in the same city.
They both were born in the same city.

Originally Posted by tacuba

I'm curious Perikles, why do you find this usage incorrect? Is it a regional thing?

Of the four sentences above, I feel the last one just sounds wrong. I've just searched the BNC and found that "they were both" has 413 hits, and "they both were" has 20 hits. Of these 20 hits, some are a construction which I find correct such as "he couldn't know how relieved they both were ".

For American usage, COCA gives 1321 and 119 hits respectively, almost twice the ratio, but still small. Interesting.

[pjt33]

Yo diría que en esta frase "both" es redundante: "They were born in the same city" y ya está.

[hermit]

Yes, and the redundancy can serve as emphasis, depending on how "both"
is stressed. Canadian English conforms closely to BrE, and Perikles'
preference is quite understandable to me.

If Irmamar's teacher speaks/teaches BrE, then it's wise to go with it.

Anything correct in BrE will be correct, technically, anywhere in North America as well...

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by pjt33

Yo diría que en esta frase "both" es redundante: "They were born in the same city" y ya está.

I was concentrating on the correctness of grammar, and I failed to notice the elephant in the room. OK - delete "in the same city" and add "in New York" in all above sentences.