Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): En una encuesta reciente, la mayoría dijo que se sentía orgullosa de su acento latino. - In a recent survey, the majority said they felt proud of their Latin accent.

In everyday speech, some people do say la mayoría dijeron (making the verb agree with the idea of many individuals), but in careful or formal Spanish, singular agreement with la mayoría is preferred:

Recommended / more standard: La mayoría dijo…
Also heard in speech: La mayoría dijeron…

Why is it se sentía and not se sintió?

Both are possible, but they have a different nuance:

se sentía (imperfect) suggests a state or feeling over some period of time, or gives background:
- Implies something like: they felt proud (in general / as an ongoing feeling).
se sintió (preterite) presents the feeling as a completed event or at a specific moment:
- Implies something like: they felt proud (at that moment / as a reaction).

In a sentence reporting survey results, Spanish speakers often prefer the imperfect to describe a general emotional state:

…la mayoría dijo que se sentía orgullosa…

You could say dijo que se sintió orgullosa, but it would sound more like pride triggered by one specific event, not a more stable feeling about their accent.

Why do we use sentía with se (reflexive), i.e., se sentía, instead of just sentía?

Spanish distinguishes between:

sentir (non‑reflexive):
- to feel something physically or emotionally
- to regret something
  Examples:
- Siento mucho lo ocurrido. – I’m very sorry about what happened.
- Siento frío. – I feel cold.
sentirse (reflexive: me/te/se/nos/se
- sentir):
- to feel a certain way, to be in a certain emotional or physical state
  Example:
- Me siento feliz. – I feel happy.

In your sentence, we’re describing how they felt (proud), not what they felt as a direct object. That’s why we use sentirse:

…que se sentía orgullosa… = that they felt proud.

Why is the adjective orgullosa feminine, when the group described probably includes men and women?

Adjectives in Spanish agree with the grammatical gender of the noun, not necessarily the real‑world gender of the people.

Here:

The noun is la mayoría.
Mayoría is feminine.
So the adjective must be feminine singular: orgullosa.

The grammar is:

la mayoría (feminine singular)
se sentía orgullosa (adjective in feminine singular to match la mayoría)

If you wanted to emphasize the individuals instead of the collective noun, you could restructure:

La mayoría de los encuestados se sentían orgullosos de su acento latino.
(Here the adjective orgullosos agrees with los encuestados, not with la mayoría.)

Why is orgullosa singular and not plural (orgullosos / orgullosas)?

Same reason as above: the adjective agrees with la mayoría, which is singular (even though it refers to many people).

la mayoría → grammatically singular
→ se sentía orgullosa (singular adjective)

To use a plural adjective, you’d need a grammatically plural noun to agree with:

Las personas encuestadas se sentían orgullosas…
Muchos de ellos se sentían orgullosos…

Why is it orgullosa de and not orgullosa por or another preposition?

The standard Spanish construction is:

estar / sentirse orgulloso de algo
= to be / to feel proud of something

So the natural form is:

se sentía orgullosa de su acento latino

Other prepositions exist in some contexts (orgulloso por, etc.), but for the basic “proud of X” meaning, orgulloso de is the normal, default pattern.

Why do we say de su acento latino and not sobre su acento latino?

The verb sentirse orgulloso requires de to introduce what you’re proud of:

orgulloso de algo / de alguien = proud of something / someone

Sobre means “about” or “on (the topic of)”:

un libro sobre acentos – a book about accents

So:

orgullosa de su acento latino = proud of their Latin accent
(algo) sobre su acento latino = (something) about their Latin accent

Here, “proud of” clearly calls for de, not sobre.

Why is it su acento latino and not sus acentos latinos, since many people are involved?

Again, the grammar follows la mayoría, which is singular:

Subject (grammatical): la mayoría (singular)
Possessive to match that: su (its / their, referring to the majority as a unit)
Noun: acento (singular, each person’s accent in general)

Spanish often uses the singular when talking about something that each member of a group has individually:

La gente cuida su salud. – People take care of their health.
(Literally: The people take care of *their (singular) health.*)

So:

…la mayoría dijo que se sentía orgullosa de su acento latino.

You could say sus acentos latinos, but it would sound more like you’re counting separate accents one by one; the singular is much more natural here.

Why is it acento latino and not acento latina, when “accent” belongs to Latinos/Latinas?

The adjective must agree with the noun it modifies, not with the owner:

acento is masculine → el acento
Therefore the adjective is masculine too → acento latino

Examples:

un acento mexicano (not mexicana), because acento is masculine.
una voz mexicana (feminine), because voz is feminine.

So:

su acento latino = their Latin accent
(latino matches acento, not the person.)

Why is the verb in the subordinate clause se sentía (indicative) and not the subjunctive se sintiera / se sintiese?

The structure is:

la mayoría dijo que + [statement]

When you report what someone said as a statement of fact, Spanish normally uses the indicative in the clause after que:

Dijeron que estaban cansados. – They said (that) they were tired.
Ella dijo que tenía hambre. – She said (that) she was hungry.

Here, we are reporting what the majority said, not expressing a wish, doubt, or unreality, so the indicative is correct:

…la mayoría dijo que se sentía orgullosa… ✅

Subjunctive would be used after verbs that trigger doubt, desire, etc., or in specific structures, but decir que + affirmative reported statement normally takes indicative.

Why is encuesta feminine (una encuesta) and not masculine (un encuesta)?

In Spanish, every noun has a grammatical gender that you simply have to learn with the word. Encuesta (survey / poll) is:

la encuesta
una encuesta

So:

En una encuesta reciente… = In a recent survey…

Using un encuesta would be grammatically incorrect.

Why is reciente placed after the noun (una encuesta reciente) and not before it (una reciente encuesta)?

For many adjectives, the default position is after the noun:

una encuesta reciente – a recent survey

You can say una reciente encuesta. The meaning is essentially the same, but:

una encuesta reciente sounds neutral and very natural.
una reciente encuesta can sound a bit more formal or marked, sometimes adding slight emphasis on “recent”.

With reciente, there is no big change in meaning depending on position; both orders are grammatically correct. The sentence just chooses the most neutral word order.

Why do we need que in dijo que se sentía orgullosa? Could we say dijo se sentía orgullosa?

In Spanish, que is normally required to introduce a clause of reported speech:

Dijo que se sentía orgullosa. – She/He/They said (that) they felt proud.
La mayoría dijo que estaban cansados. – The majority said (that) they were tired.

Leaving out que here (*dijo se sentía orgullosa) is ungrammatical in standard Spanish. Unlike English, where you can drop that (“He said he was tired”), Spanish normally must keep que in this kind of structure.