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Veinte personas caminan por la calle larga.

Veinte personas caminan por la calle larga.
Twenty people walk on the long street.
FromLesson 19inHardcore Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of Veinte personas caminan por la calle larga.

la calle
the street
largo
long
caminar
to walk
la persona
the person
veinte
twenty
por
on

Questions & Answers about Veinte personas caminan por la calle larga.

Why is there no definite article before veinte personas?
In Spanish, when a noun is directly quantified by a number, the article is usually omitted. The phrase veinte personas simply means “twenty people” in general. You can add las (giving las veinte personas) if you want to refer to a specific, previously mentioned group.
Why does veinte not change form to match the gender or number of personas? Shouldn’t it be veintas?
Cardinal numbers in Spanish (like veinte, treinta, cincuenta) are invariable. They never take a plural “-s” or change for gender. Instead, the noun that follows (personas) carries the plural and gender marking.
Why is the verb caminar conjugated as caminan instead of camina?
The subject veinte personas is plural (“they”), so the verb must be in the third-person plural form, caminan. If the subject were singular (e.g., una persona), you would say camina.
Why is the preposition por used before la calle rather than en or sobre?

Por expresses movement through or along a path (“along the street”).

  • En la calle would focus on location (“in/on the street”).
  • Sobre la calle is less common and often implies “on top of.”
Why is there a definite article la before calle larga?
Spanish requires an article before most singular, countable nouns. Here la agrees with the feminine singular noun calle. Without it, the phrase would sound incomplete.
Does the adjective larga have to come after the noun calle? Could I say larga calle?
By default, descriptive adjectives follow the noun (calle larga). Placing larga before (larga calle) is grammatically possible but uncommon in everyday speech—it gives a poetic or emphatic feel.
Could I use andar instead of caminar in this sentence?
Yes. Andar por la calle also means “to walk along the street.” In many Latin American regions, andar and caminar are interchangeable when talking about walking.
Why is calle feminine? Are there masculine street words?
Noun gender in Spanish is lexical—you learn each noun as masculine or feminine. Calle is simply one of the feminine nouns (la calle). There’s no masculine form el calle, so you must memorize that calle is feminine.
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“How does verb conjugation work in Spanish?”
Spanish verbs change form based on the subject, tense, and mood. Regular verbs follow predictable patterns depending on whether they end in ‑ar, ‑er, or ‑ir. For example, "hablar" (to speak) becomes "hablo" (I speak), "hablas" (you speak), and "habla" (he/she speaks) in the present tense.

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