Describe how many people are at a station or visiting a museum.

The idea

Gente means people collectively and is grammatically feminine singular: la gente espera, mucha gente viene. Use personas when counting individuals, as in tres personas.

Examples

  • Hay mucha gente en la estación.There are many people at the station.
  • La gente espera el autobús.The people are waiting for the bus.
  • Hoy viene poca gente al museo.Few people are coming to the museum today.
  • Conozco gente de otras ciudades.I know people from other cities.
  • La gente de mi barrio es amable.The people in my neighbourhood are friendly.
  • ¿Hay gente en la sala?Are there people in the room?

Read-aloud uses a synthetic Spanish voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.

Watch out

Although English “people” normally takes a plural verb, Spanish la gente takes a singular verb when it is the subject.

Try it yourself

  1. Choose the singular verb agreeing with la gente: La gente ___ el autobús. (espera / esperan)

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    espera

    Espera agrees with the singular subject la gente.

  2. Choose the feminine form with gente: Hay ___ gente en la estación. (mucha / mucho)

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    mucha

    Mucha agrees with the feminine noun gente.

  3. Choose the singular verb agreeing with poca gente: Hoy ___ poca gente al museo. (viene / vienen)

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    viene

    Viene agrees with singular poca gente.

Use it today

Describe a place with many people and say what the group is doing.