A maioria esperou no prédio.

The majority waited in the building.

Breakdown of A maioria esperou no prédio.

• em: in
• esperar: to wait
• o: the
• o prédio: the building

Questions & Answers about A maioria esperou no prédio.

Why is it a maioria and not just maioria?

In Portuguese, maioria is normally used as a noun, so it usually takes an article: a maioria. English often says most without an article, but Portuguese prefers a maioria for the majority / most people.

So for a learner, a maioria is the natural basic form to remember.

Why is the verb esperou singular if a maioria refers to many people?

Because a maioria is grammatically singular. The main noun is maioria, so the verb usually agrees with that singular noun:

A maioria esperou.

Even though the meaning involves several people, Portuguese often treats collective expressions like this as singular. For learners, singular agreement is the safest and most standard choice.

What tense is esperou?

Esperou is the 3rd person singular of esperar in the pretérito perfeito simples.

Here it presents the action as a completed event in the past. In other words, the waiting happened and is viewed as finished.

Compare:

• esperou = waited, did wait
• esperava = was waiting, used to wait