La Gente - verb conjugating
When conjugating verbs after la gente, should they be plural or singular? It says 'la' before gente so im guessing it should be third person singular? But if i was then writing about them in the next sentence, i would say 'they' and therefore use the 3rd person plural. is that right?
2 Answers
Yes, if "la gente" is the subject of a sentence the verb is conjugated in the 3rd person singular. If you next refer to them ellos, las personas, or anything else plural and that is the new subject, the verb would then be conjugated in the 3rd person plural.
The explanation above is a good one and just to add to that - the following is an excerpt from Shakira.com in the news section which may help as an example of how the 3rd person singlar conjugation is used with la gente (of course as mentioned above if you at any stage referred to la gente in any kind of plural form the plural conjugation would be needed):
La gente de Haití necesita de nuestra Ayuda Inmediata.
Se necesitará dinero para proveer ayuda de emergencia urgentemente.
