Learn French: Combien d'entre nous réclament l'or ?

Combien d'entre nous réclament l'or ?

How many of us demand the gold?

Breakdown of Combien d'entre nous réclament l'or ?

nous

we / us (object pronoun)

of / from / any (in negative sentences) / about (concerning)

Questions & Answers about Combien d'entre nous réclament l'or ?

Why is it d'entre nous instead of just de nous to say "of us"?

When a quantity word like combien (how many), beaucoup (a lot), or certains (some) is followed by a pronoun (us, you, them), French requires the construction d'entre plus a stressed pronoun (nous, vous, eux, elles). You cannot say combien de nous. It literally translates closer to "how many from among us."

Why is the verb réclament conjugated in the third-person plural ("they" form) instead of the "we" form (réclamons)?

The subject of the verb is combien, not nous. Because combien refers to a plural amount ("how many people"), the verb takes the "they" form. The word nous is just part of the prepositional phrase describing the group, so it doesn't dictate the verb conjugation.

If I wanted to say "One of us demands the gold," how would the verb change?

The verb always agrees with the quantity word at the start. If you changed the quantity to a singular word like Un (One) or Chacun (Each), you would use the third-person singular verb conjugation: Un d'entre nous réclame l'or.

Why use réclamer here instead of demander?