En la excursión éramos diecisiete personas y aun así todo salió bien.

Because éramos means we were, so the speaker is including themselves in the group.

• Éramos diecisiete personas = There were seventeen of us / We were seventeen people
• Había diecisiete personas = There were seventeen people in a more impersonal way

Both can be correct in some contexts, but they are not exactly the same.

• Éramos... focuses on the group as "we"
• Había... just states that a number of people existed there

So this sentence uses éramos because the speaker was part of the excursion.

Because éramos is first person plural: we were.

The speaker is talking about a group they belonged to.

• éramos = we were
• eran = they were

So:

• En la excursión éramos diecisiete personas = the speaker was one of the seventeen
• En la excursión eran diecisiete personas would mean the speaker is talking about another group, not including themselves

Spanish often uses ser to talk about who was in a group, especially with numbers.

• Éramos diecisiete personas = We were seventeen people

This is not describing a temporary location or condition in the usual estar sense. It is identifying the group composition.

Using estar here would sound wrong:

• ❌ Estábamos diecisiete personas

Spanish says:

• ✅ Éramos diecisiete personas
• ✅ Había diecisiete personas

This is about the difference between the imperfect and the preterite.

• éramos gives background information
• fuimos would sound like a completed event or could mean we went / we became / we were in a more bounded sense, depending on context

In this sentence, éramos diecisiete personas is just setting the scene: it tells us how many people were on the excursion. That is classic imperfect use.

Then the sentence moves to the main result:

• todo salió bien = everything turned out well

So the tense contrast is very natural:

• background/state: éramos
• completed outcome: salió

Here en la excursión means something like on the excursion, during the excursion, or on the trip/outing.

Spanish often uses en in places where English uses on or during.

So:

• En la excursión = On/During the excursion

You could also say:

• Durante la excursión = During the excursion

But en la excursión sounds very natural and idiomatic.

Aun así means even so, even then, or nevertheless.

It introduces a contrast:

• there were seventeen people, which might sound like a lot or potentially difficult to manage
• even so, everything went well

So the sentence structure is:

• Situation: éramos diecisiete personas
• Contrast/result: y aun así todo salió bien

It is a very common expression in Spanish.

In standard spelling, aun así is normally written without the accent on aun.

That is because here aun means something like even.

A useful distinction is:

• aún = still / yet
• aun = even

So:

• Aún no ha llegado = He still hasn’t arrived
• Aun así = Even so

You may sometimes see aún así, but the usual standard form here is aun así.

The y means and, and it links the two parts of the sentence smoothly:

• En la excursión éramos diecisiete personas
• y aun así todo salió bien

It gives the sense:

• There were seventeen people on the excursion, and even so everything turned out well

The y is not always strictly necessary. You could also say:

• En la excursión éramos diecisiete personas; aun así, todo salió bien.

That version is also correct. With y, the sentence sounds very natural and conversational.

Literally, salir usually means to go out / to leave, but in many expressions it also means to turn out.

So:

• salir bien = to turn out well
• salir mal = to turn out badly

Examples:

• El examen me salió bien = The exam went well for me / I did well on the exam
• La fiesta salió muy bien = The party turned out very well

So todo salió bien means:

• everything turned out well
• the whole thing went well

It is a very common Spanish expression.

Because salió is preterite, and it presents the outcome as a completed whole.

• salió bien = it turned out well
• salía bien would suggest something ongoing, habitual, or descriptive, which does not fit as well here

The excursion is treated as a finished event, and the speaker is giving the final result:

• everything turned out well

So the preterite is the natural choice.

Todo means everything or the whole thing.

Here it refers to the excursion in a broad sense:

• the organisation
• the experience
• how things went overall

So todo salió bien does not mean every single object literally; it means everything about it went well.

Spanish can sometimes omit the noun if it is obvious, but here personas makes it clear and natural.

• Éramos diecisiete = There were seventeen of us
• Éramos diecisiete personas = We were seventeen people

Both are possible, but personas sounds a bit fuller and more explicit.

Also, personas is gender-neutral in meaning: it can refer to any group of people, regardless of whether they are men, women, or mixed.

Yes. A very natural alternative would be:

• Aunque éramos diecisiete personas en la excursión, todo salió bien.

That means:

• Although there were seventeen of us on the excursion, everything went well.

The original sentence with y aun así emphasizes the contrast a little differently:

• éramos diecisiete personas → that sounds like a possible problem
• y aun así → and even so
• todo salió bien → surprising positive result

So both are correct, but the original has a nice "despite that" feeling.

It is similar, but in everyday Spanish excursión is often much more common than excursion is in everyday English.

It usually means:

• a trip
• an outing
• a day trip
• a school trip
• an organised visit

Depending on context, English might translate it as:

• trip
• outing
• excursion

So learners should not assume it always has the slightly formal tone that excursion can have in English.

Todo salió bien is the most neutral and natural order here.

Spanish word order is flexible, but not completely free. In this sentence:

• todo is the subject
• salió bien is the predicate

So Todo salió bien is the straightforward way to say Everything went well.

You might hear other orders in speech for emphasis, but todo salió bien is the standard form learners should use.

The stress is on the last syllable: -sión.

A rough guide is:

• ex-cur-SIÓN

The written accent on ó shows that stress.

A few pronunciation notes:

• x in excursión is usually pronounced like ks
• ción sounds roughly like thyón in much of Spain, because c before i is often pronounced like the th in think
• in many other Spanish-speaking regions, it sounds more like syón

So in Spain, a common pronunciation is approximately:

• eks-kur-SYON or eks-kur-THYON, depending on how narrowly you want to represent it

Yes, very common.

Spanish often uses:

• salir bien = go well / turn out well
• salir mal = go badly / turn out badly

So you will hear things like:

• La reunión salió bien = The meeting went well
• La cena salió mal = Dinner didn’t go well / turned out badly
• Al final, todo salió bien = In the end, everything turned out well

This is a very useful everyday pattern to learn.