La gente que vive allí, ¿de qué viven?

Question

I was listening to Spanish Notes when Ben asked:

La gente que vive allí, ¿de qué se vive?

Marina corrected him:

¿De qué viven?

He's trying to ask what they do for a living. I assume Marina is correct, since she is a native madrileña, but I'm curious about the conjugation. I would have thought that the verb would be 3rd person singular, since gente is singular, but she used a plural conjugation. Why would that be?

Answer 1

Marina corrected him:

¿De qué viven?

This is quite a common mistake actually, among natives

it should be de qué vive?

However, as this leads to confusion, we normally say, viven, all those people....

¿Todos esos, de qué viven?

of course! - kawalero, Jul 26, 2010

Answer 2

La gente-> The People -> people is more one person (ellos)

Although 'gente' is usually translated to English as 'people,' in Spanish it is a singular noun. - --Mariana--, Jul 26, 2010

Answer 3

I disagree with the use of the verb vivir in this case. Vivir references the life processes that occur, or is used by extension to discuss the location a person or thing resides in. I think a better way to ask how a person earned money would be to use the verb "trabajar", as in "¿Que tipo de trabajor hacen la gente que viven aqúi" or "¿Donde trabajan ellos?" The meaning is more clear.

The people they were talking about live in a shanty town outside Madrid. It would be safe to guess that most of them don't have jobs, so the question really is, "What do they do to live?" - KevinB, Jul 26, 2010

¿A qué se dedican ellos? - 0074b507, Jul 26, 2010

Answer 4

HI mencer, welcome to the forum

I disagree with the use of the verb vivir in this case.

Vivir de is used to indicate how this person manages to live. That is, what do they do for a living.

¿Qué tipo de trabajo hace la gente que vive aquí

I said before we often use the plural form when we refer to gente, but not in the same sentence