"We are a motor scooter shy of taking all the people to the beach."

The motor scooter is an essential means of transport in Taiwan. Each one can sit two people.
Let's say, there are 10 people and four motor scooters now. Then we need one more so that everyone can go somewhere together.

Does the topic sentence sound natural? How would you use 'shy' in a sentence to describe the situation?

Thank you in advance. :)

Question

"We are a motor scooter shy of taking all the people to the beach."

The motor scooter is an essential means of transport in Taiwan. Each one can sit two people. 
Let's say, there are 10 people and four motor scooters now. Then we need one more so that everyone can go somewhere together.

Does the topic sentence sound natural? How would you use 'shy' in a sentence to describe the situation?

Thank you in advance. :)

Answer

Yes, this makes sense! To be just a little more clear, I might say, “We are just one motor scooter shy of taking all 10 people to the beach.”

Examples:

I was just one question shy of passing that test! (So, I failed the test, but I was just one question away from passing.)

We’re only one person shy of having a whole group.

Usually it’s paired with “just” or “only,” like in these sentences.

Does that make sense?

Answer

I agree with Kayla's answer.  Here "shy of" means "short of".  You could also say, "We are one scooter short of taking all the people to the beach."

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