Breakdown of Muchos adolescentes participaron en esa elección porque quieren más posibilidades de estudiar.
Questions & Answers about Muchos adolescentes participaron en esa elección porque quieren más posibilidades de estudiar.
In Spanish, when you say “many + plural noun” in a general way, you normally don’t use an article:
- Muchos adolescentes = many teenagers
- Muchos estudiantes = many students
Adding los (los muchos adolescentes) would sound odd or very marked, as if you were talking about some very specific, already-known set of “those many teenagers,” and it’s rarely used in normal speech. Here, we’re just talking about many teenagers in general who took part in that election, so no article is the natural choice.
- Muchos adolescentes = many teenagers (in general, not tied to a specific group previously defined)
- Muchos de los adolescentes = many of the teenagers (a subset of a specific group of teenagers that we already know or have mentioned)
So:
- Muchos adolescentes participaron… → many teenagers (in general) took part.
- Muchos de los adolescentes participaron… → from some specific group of teenagers (for example, at a certain school), many of them took part.
In many real-life contexts (like a known class, school, or group), muchos de los adolescentes would actually be more precise.
Adolescentes is the same word for masculine and feminine; it doesn’t change form:
- el adolescente / los adolescentes (masculine)
- la adolescente / las adolescentes (feminine)
Spanish uses the masculine plural form (with muchos) when the group is mixed or when the gender is unknown:
- Muchos adolescentes participaron… can mean:
- many boys, or
- a mixed group of boys and girls.
If you want to emphasize that they are all girls, you’d say:
- Muchas adolescentes participaron en esa elección…
Participaron is the preterite, which is used for completed actions in the past. Participating in that election is seen as one specific, finished event.
- Muchos adolescentes participaron en esa elección… = they took part in that particular election (completed act).
The imperfect participaban would describe an ongoing or repeated past action, e.g.:
- Cuando había elecciones escolares, muchos adolescentes participaban.
= Whenever there were school elections, many teenagers used to participate.
So here, because we’re talking about one specific election, participaron is the natural choice.
Not with the exact same meaning.
- Participaron en esa elección clearly puts the action in the past.
- Participan en esa elección would suggest that the election is happening now (or around now) and they are currently participating, which clashes with esa (that election), which sounds more like a completed, already-identified event.
If the context is a news headline about an election going on right now, you might see the present:
- Muchos adolescentes participan en esta elección…
Standard Spanish uses participar en + evento/actividad:
- Participar en una elección
- Participar en un concurso
- Participar en una reunión
In some parts of Latin America, you will hear participar de (e.g. participar de una reunión), but participar en is more widely accepted and taught as standard.
Participar a with this meaning is not correct in Spanish.
The sentence describes:
- a past event: participaron en esa elección (they took part in that election), and
- a reason/motivation that is still true now or is seen as a general fact: porque quieren más posibilidades de estudiar (because they want more chances to study).
Using the present quieren shows that their desire is seen as current or ongoing, not limited to the past moment of the election.
If you say porque querían más posibilidades de estudiar, you put their desire in the past as well, which is also grammatically correct but adds a nuance: it sounds more like “back then, they wanted more chances,” without necessarily saying it’s still true now. Both are possible; the original chooses to highlight a motivation that still applies.
The subject of quieren is still muchos adolescentes from the beginning of the sentence. In Spanish, once the subject is clear, you don’t need to repeat it with a pronoun:
- Muchos adolescentes participaron… porque quieren…
= Many teenagers took part… because they want…
You could add ellos (porque ellos quieren…) for emphasis or clarity, but it’s not necessary and would often sound heavier in normal speech. Spanish drops subject pronouns much more frequently than English.
After porque, you normally use the indicative when you are giving a real, factual reason:
- … participaron porque quieren más posibilidades de estudiar.
→ They participated because they (actually) want more chances to study.
The subjunctive after porque appears in special contexts, e.g., when you negate the cause or you’re talking about a supposed or rejected reason:
- No lo hizo porque quisiera ganar puntos.
(He didn’t do it because he wanted to score points.)
In this sentence, the reason is presented as a true motive, so the indicative (quieren) is correct.
Both can explain motivation, but they focus slightly differently:
Porque quieren más posibilidades de estudiar
→ Emphasizes their desire (they want more chances).Para tener más posibilidades de estudiar
→ Emphasizes the purpose/goal (in order to have more chances).
Both are natural and you could rephrase the sentence as:
- Muchos adolescentes participaron en esa elección para tener más posibilidades de estudiar.
The original version highlights what they want; the para version highlights what they hope to achieve.
Both posibilidades and oportunidades are possible, but they don’t sound exactly the same:
- Posibilidades = possibilities / chances (a bit more abstract)
- Oportunidades = opportunities (often more concrete, focusing on actual openings or chances that appear)
In many contexts, you could say either:
- …quieren más posibilidades de estudiar.
- …quieren más oportunidades de estudiar.
Depending on the context, oportunidades might sound a bit more natural if you mean specific scholarships, programs, or places in schools. Posibilidades can sound a bit more general or statistical (greater probability/chance).
Spanish often uses de + infinitive after a noun to express what that noun relates to:
- la posibilidad de viajar
- la oportunidad de trabajar
- las ganas de aprender
So posibilidades de estudiar is the most standard pattern: “possibilities/chances of studying.”
Posibilidades para estudiar can appear in some contexts, and is not necessarily wrong, but de is much more common with posibilidades when you simply mean “chances of doing X.”
The demonstratives:
- esta = this (close to the speaker, in time or space)
- esa = that (a bit more distant, but not extremely so)
- aquella = that…over there (further away, often used less in everyday speech)
Esa elección suggests an election that is not right now, but is still relatively close or clearly identifiable in the shared context (maybe last week’s election, the one we already mentioned, etc.).
- esta elección would be more like “this election (current or very immediate one).”
- aquella elección can sound like “that distant election (long ago or far away).”
So esa elección works well for “that election” you both know about, which is not happening at this exact moment.
Yes, elections are very often referred to in the plural in Spanish: las elecciones (general elections, presidential elections, etc.).
Using elección in the singular can suggest:
- a specific vote or choice, for example in a smaller context like a school election for class president,
- or simply a stylistic choice by the writer.
If you were talking about a typical political election, las elecciones would be more common:
- Muchos adolescentes participaron en esas elecciones…
Yes, that’s grammatically correct and sounds natural. Spanish allows you to put the porque clause first for emphasis on the reason:
- Porque quieren más posibilidades de estudiar, muchos adolescentes participaron en esa elección.
This version emphasizes the motive first (“Because they want more chances to study…”), then tells you what they did (“…many teenagers took part in that election”). The meaning is the same; it’s mainly a matter of style and emphasis.