When to use 'A gente'

Portuguese Questions Expressions & Usage
1

I’m a bit confused as to when to use ‘a gente’ in a sentence - any help?

A gente vs nos use in Portugal
2

A gente relates to ’ we ’ or ’ people’ It is used mainly in spoken Portuguese and is conjugated in the third person singular.
A gente não quer trabalhar ao fim de samana. People dont’t want to work at the weekend.
Há muito gente na rua… There are a lot of people in the street.
Todo a gente quer gelado. We all want ice cream. I am sure there are more advanced Portuguese speakers who will be able to advise on this.
Hope this helps.

3

All perfect, @davidcowling949 :slight_smile:

It’s rather informal as an expression, especially when used in the sense of ‘we’. When it means ‘we’, it’s always attached to the article a -> a gente. When it’s ‘people’, it varies. I’m finding it rather difficult to give you clear guidelines here; it’s one of those expressions that is easier to feel how to use than to explain. In any case, you don’t ever need to use it if you’re not sure you’ll get it right. You can just use ‘nós’ (we), etc.

Some more examples:

  • A gente vai à festa (We’ll go to the party).
  • A gente vê-se (We’ll see you around).
  • Toda a gente sabe isso. (Everybody knows that).
  • Há pouca gente aqui (There are few people here).
  • Esta é a minha gente (These are my people).
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4

Thanks, that’s a big help!

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5

Sorry about missing this post,You are a valued resource to me!

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6

Oh, no worries at all. Glad to help!

7

Is ‘a gente’ ever used to mean ‘us’. For example I have a Brasilian sentence which says ‘Os cavalos amam a gente’?

Thanks in advance

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@patrickmcmahon5544 Not really. That’s much more typical of Brazilian Portuguese :slight_smile:

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9

Maybe there is another thread to address this, but I have been struggling to find confirmation of how to express a general way of doing things, i.e.:

you can take the train to reach Sintra

if you want to make progress, you need to take responsibility

I guess this is the equivalent of the French on.

My assumption is that - as with “on” - you would not use the second person (singular or plural) but the third person singular, and in Portuguese you have the option of not having to specify the protagonist, so the above would be

Pode viajar à Sintra em comboio.

Is that a correct assumption?

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@iansbell2, yes, you can use the implied third person singular. For this type of general description, you don’t want to directly use any pronouns. So, you’d say, for example:

Pode viajar para Sintra de comboio.

(note the small corrections in prepositions)

11

Thanks Joseph.

Prepositions: my constant nemesis in Portuguese.

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