¿Decenas?

[laepelba]

This is from a "word of the day" email that I receive. Is there an error between the ejemplo and the traducción?

(The WOD was intoxicar... for what it's worth...)

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"Decenas" is a correct word in context for the sentence, but it's true the translation for "dozens" should be "docenas".

I assume that the examples are using different words because "decenas" is more commonly used in Spanish (at least in Mexican Spanish) and "dozens" is more commonly used in English. :)

[Rusty]

In other words, saying 'tens of people' is one way a Spanish speaker can say 'dozens of people'. 'Dozens of people' is used to mean a lot of people. It really doesn't matter if we say 'tens of' or 'dozens of' or 'hundreds of'. They all mean 'a lot of'.
I think the translator did the English speaker a favor by converting 'tens of people' to the more common collocation.

[Don José]

It really doesn't matter if we say 'tens of' or 'dozens of' or 'hundreds of'. They all mean 'a lot of'.
I think it matters. "Tens" or "dozens" would be more or less the same. But recently, watching TV, I heard a journalist saying something like:

The museum includes pieces that are thousands years old.

Before that, she had said the older pieces were from the 18th century...
I'm afraid they make this kind of mistake so often.

[laepelba]

Thanks, all - these explanations make a lot of sense to me. I am growing more and more in my appreciation for the lack of "one-to-one"-ness of translation. :)

[chileno]

tens = decenas

hundreds = centenas

etc.