talking about people

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Talking about PEOPLE

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Page 1: Talking about people

Talking about PEOPLE

Page 2: Talking about people

easy, but very, very often it is done incorrectly by native Spanish speakers.

"The people is stupid."

The same thing happens with native English speakers, when talking about

people in Spanish, and they make the same error just as often.

"Gente son estúpidos."

So what's up with that??

Talking about people in English is

Page 3: Talking about people

Here's the deal:

Most nouns that are countable in English (meaning that they can be counted and can have plural form) are

also countable in Spanish:

car / cars -- carro / los carrosdrug / drugs -- droga / las drogas

Not the case with "people"

"People", which means "gente" in Spanish, is most commonly used (precisely 97.38% of the time) to

express a plurality of human beings, which makes it countable.

1 person / 2 people / 392 people / some people several people / a buttload of people

Page 4: Talking about people

"Gente", the Spanish term for "people", while referring to a general plurality of people, is not grammatically a

countable word.An example of a general plurality is the following:

Así es la gente. (That's how people are.)

Spanish, literally translated, says - That's how the people is.

We use "the" (la) only when referring to specific groups of people, not people in general:

La gente es extraña. -- People are strange.

La gente en el estadio es extraña. -- The people in the stadium are strange.

La gente cree en Dios. -- The people believes in God. Gente creen en Dios. -- People believe in God.

Page 5: Talking about people

No hubo mucha gente.There wasn't much people.

No hubo muchas gente(s).There weren't many people.

__________________

Así es la gente.That's how the people is.

Así son la gente.That's how people are.__________________

La gente está muy emocionada hoy.The people is very excited today.

Gente están muy emocionadas hoy.People are very excited today.

Page 6: Talking about people

Another common mistake trying to express "people" made by native Spanish speakers / English learners is using the word "persons".

"I saw three persons in the car."

In Spanish, to talk about a specific plurality, "people" is expressed as "personas":

Vi tres personas en el auto. (I saw three people in the car.).

Spanish, literally translated, says - "I saw three persons in the car."

And so it's easy to see above where the error originates, and also why translation is not a

trustworthy friend..

Page 7: Talking about people

So, to program the detail securely into the mind, just write a few simple sentences

that show you get the idea.

Some people are smart.

I saw several people I know at the party.

People like bread.

How many beautiful powerful people would a pitiful piano player plagiarize if pitiful piano

players plagiarized beautiful powerful people?