El público en el teatro es muy tranquilo.

to be

Breakdown of El público en el teatro es muy tranquilo.

• en: in
• muy: very
• tranquilo: calm

Questions & Answers about El público en el teatro es muy tranquilo.

Why is it el público and not la público or la pública?

In Spanish, público (meaning audience) is a masculine noun, so it takes the masculine article el:

• el público = the audience
• un público = an audience

There is a feminine form pública, but it means public as an adjective referring to a feminine noun:

• una escuela pública = a public school

So for audience, you must use el público (masculine singular).

If the audience is made of many people, why is it es (singular) and not son (plural)?

Público is a collective noun. It refers to many individuals, but grammatically it is treated as a single unit:

• El público es muy tranquilo.
  The audience is very quiet/calm.

This is just like English:

• The audience *is very quiet. (not usually *are)

In Spanish you will normally see the verb in the singular with el público.
In very informal speech you might hear something like:

• El público están muy nerviosos.

Here the speaker shifts to thinking of the individual people, but this is much less standard and can sound incorrect in careful speech. The safe, correct option: El público es…

Why is it es muy tranquilo and not está muy tranquilo?