Breakdown of C’è molta gente sotto la pensilina della stazione.
della
of
c'è
there is
molto
much
sotto
under
Questions & Answers about C’è molta gente sotto la pensilina della stazione.
Why does the sentence start with c’è?
C’è is the usual Italian way to say there is or there are in an existential sentence.
It comes from ci + è:
- ci = there
- è = is
So c’è molta gente literally looks like there is much people, but in natural English it means there are a lot of people.
Italian uses this structure very often to introduce the existence or presence of something somewhere.
Why is it c’è and not ci sono, since there are many people?
This is a very common question, because English speakers expect a plural verb here.
The reason is that gente is grammatically singular in Italian, even though it refers to many people as a group. Because gente is singular, Italian uses the singular verb:
If you used a clearly plural noun, then you would use ci sono:
- Ci sono molte persone = There are many people
Why is it molta gente and not molti gente?