Breakdown of El sábado habrá una manifestación donde la ciudadanía llevará carteles para pedir a los políticos más acción climática.
Questions & Answers about El sábado habrá una manifestación donde la ciudadanía llevará carteles para pedir a los políticos más acción climática.
Hay means there is / there are (now, in general).
Habrá is the simple future of haber in its impersonal/existential use and means there will be.
So:
- Hay una manifestación = There is a demonstration (now / today / in general).
- El sábado habrá una manifestación = On Saturday there will be a demonstration (future, scheduled event).
Here the demonstration is planned for the future, so Spanish naturally uses the future tense.
Habrá is:
- Person/number: 3rd person singular
- Tense: simple future
- Verb: haber, in its impersonal/existential use (not as an auxiliary).
In this use, haber:
- Does not agree in number with the thing that exists:
- Habrá una manifestación (singular)
- Habrá muchas manifestaciones (plural – the verb stays singular)
- Works like “there is / there are / there was / there will be” in English.
Key forms of this existential haber:
- Present: hay (there is / there are)
- Imperfect: había (there was / there were / there used to be)
- Preterite: hubo (there was/were – completed event)
- Future: habrá (there will be)
- Periphrastic future: va a haber (there is going to be)
Yes, El sábado va a haber una manifestación is perfectly correct and very common.
Nuances:
Habrá
- Slightly more neutral/formal.
- Common in news, written announcements, formal speech.
Va a haber
- Slightly more colloquial / conversational.
- Often used in spoken Spanish when talking about planned or very likely future events.
Meaning-wise, in this sentence they are practically interchangeable: both mean there will be a demonstration on Saturday.
Una manifestación uses the indefinite article, because:
- We are introducing this demonstration into the conversation for the first time.
- It’s not a specific, already-known demonstration that the listener has in mind.
Compare:
El sábado habrá una manifestación.
= On Saturday there will be a (some) demonstration.El sábado habrá la manifestación de los profesores.
= On Saturday there will be the demonstration of the teachers (a specific one both speakers know about).
So una is used because it’s new information, not a previously identified or unique event.
In this context, manifestación in Spain typically refers to:
- A public march or gathering on the streets,
- usually organized,
- to express a political or social demand or opinion, often with permits.
Very close English equivalents:
- demonstration
- protest march
- rally (depending on the context)
Related words:
- protesta – “protest” in a more general sense (could be smaller, less formal).
- concentración – a gathering of people, often static (not necessarily marching).
Manifestación in Spain tends to evoke the idea of an organized, often official street demonstration.
Normally, donde means where and refers to places:
- La ciudad donde vivo = the city where I live.
In the sentence:
- …habrá una manifestación donde la ciudadanía llevará carteles…
donde is used a bit more loosely:
- The manifestación is understood as an event that happens in a place, so donde refers to the situation / setting of the demonstration.
- You could paraphrase it more explicitly as:
- …habrá una manifestación, en la cual la ciudadanía llevará carteles…
In spoken and written Spanish, it’s very common to use donde with:
- events (la fiesta donde nos conocimos)
- occasions (la reunión donde decidimos eso)
even though, strictly speaking, they are not “places.” It’s idiomatic and natural.
Because ciudadanía is a singular noun grammatically.
- La ciudadanía = “the citizenry”, “the body of citizens”, “the public”.
Even though it refers to many people, grammatically it is collective singular, so the verb must be singular:
- La ciudadanía llevará carteles. ✔
- La ciudadanía llevarán carteles. ✘ (ungrammatical in standard Spanish)
Compare:
- La gente está cansada. (singular verb)
- Las personas están cansadas. (plural verb)
All three refer to people, but with different nuances:
la ciudadanía
- Collective, somewhat formal/institutional.
- Often used in political / civic contexts.
- Emphasizes people as citizens with rights/duties and a relationship to the state.
- Similar to “the citizenry” or “the public” in English.
los ciudadanos
- More literally “the citizens”, focusing on individuals.
- Slightly less abstract than la ciudadanía.
la gente
- Informal, very common.
- Just “people” in general, without the political or civic nuance.
Also, note a false friend:
- ciudadanía in English is usually “citizenship”,
but in Spanish la ciudadanía often means “the citizens as a group”.
Here llevar means “to carry” (on them, in their hands, etc.), often while moving:
- Llevar carteles = to carry signs/posters (in a march).
You could technically use other verbs, but they sound less natural in this exact context:
- portar carteles – more formal/literary.
- sostener / sujetar carteles – “to hold signs” (focus on the act of holding, not so much on moving with them).
In everyday Spanish about protests and marches, llevar pancartas / llevar carteles is the standard and most idiomatic expression.
Because of the structure of pedir:
- pedir algo a alguien = to ask someone for something / to request something from someone.
So we need a to introduce the indirect object, the person we are asking:
- pedir más acción climática a los políticos
= to ask the politicians for more climate action.
This a is not the “personal a” used with direct objects; it’s the preposition that goes with the verb pattern pedir algo a alguien.
No, preguntar a los políticos más acción climática is wrong.
Key difference:
pedir = to ask for / to request (something)
- Pattern: pedir algo a alguien
- Example: Piden más acción climática a los políticos.
= They ask the politicians for more climate action.
preguntar = to ask (a question)
- Pattern: preguntar algo a alguien or preguntar a alguien si / qué / cuándo…
- Example: Preguntan a los políticos qué piensan del cambio climático.
= They ask the politicians what they think about climate change.
In the sentence, people are requesting that politicians do more, not asking them a question, so pedir is the correct verb.
Here acción climática is used as an abstract / mass concept, like “climate action” in English:
- It doesn’t refer to individual, countable actions,
- but rather to the overall level / degree of political action on climate.
So:
- más acción climática ≈ more climate action (in general).
- más acciones climáticas would sound like more specific, countable actions, and is less idiomatic as a political slogan.
In speeches, media, and policy language, you will often see:
- exigir más acción climática = to demand more climate action.
Because adjectives in Spanish agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.
- acción is feminine singular, so:
- Feminine singular adjective: climática ✔
- Masculine singular adjective: climático ✘ (doesn’t match acción)
Agreement examples:
- política climática (feminine singular)
- medidas climáticas (feminine plural)
- impacto climático (masculine singular)
So acción climática is the grammatically correct combination.