La actriz saludó a veintinueve personas después de la obra y siguió sonriendo.

Saludó is the preterite form of saludar for él/ella/usted: she greeted.

It is used because the greeting is seen as a completed action in the past. The sentence tells us that the actress greeted the people, and then another action followed.

• saludó = she greeted / completed past action
• saludaba = she was greeting / used to greet / ongoing or habitual past action
• saluda = she greets / present tense

So La actriz saludó... means The actress greeted...

This is the personal a.

In Spanish, when the direct object is a specific person or people, you usually put a before it.

So:

• saludó a veintinueve personas = she greeted twenty-nine people

Compare:

• Veo a mi amiga = I see my friend
• Conozco a esas personas = I know those people

Even though English does not use a preposition here, Spanish usually does with people.

In standard Spanish, the numbers from 16 to 29 are commonly written as one word:

• dieciséis
• veinte
• veintiuno
• veintinueve

So veintinueve personas means twenty-nine people.

This is just the normal spelling, not a special grammar point in this sentence.

Both can refer to people, but they work a little differently.

• personas = people/persons, countable
• gente = people, but grammatically singular and more collective

Because the sentence gives an exact number, personas is the natural choice:

• veintinueve personas = twenty-nine people

You would not normally say veintinueve gente.

Después de means after when it is followed by a noun.

Here it is followed by la obra:

• después de la obra = after the play

The de is required before a noun.

Compare:

• después de la obra = after the play
• después de comer = after eating
• después can also appear on its own in some contexts, but here de is part of the fixed expression.

Yes, here obra means play in the theatre sense.

Obra can have several meanings depending on context, including:

• work
• piece of work
• construction work
• play (theatre)

Because the sentence mentions la actriz and what happened después de la obra, the context clearly points to the play.

Siguió sonriendo means she kept smiling or she continued smiling.

This structure emphasizes that the smiling was already happening and continued after the greeting.

• sonrió = she smiled
• siguió sonriendo = she continued smiling / kept smiling

So the sentence is not just saying that she smiled once. It is saying that she carried on smiling.

Seguir + gerund is a very common Spanish structure meaning to keep doing or to continue doing something.

Pattern:

• seguir
  • gerundio

Examples:

• Siguió sonriendo = She kept smiling
• Sigo estudiando = I keep studying / I am still studying
• Seguían hablando = They kept talking

In this sentence:

• siguió = she continued
• sonriendo = smiling

Together: she continued smiling

Because sonreír has an irregular gerund.

The verb sonreír becomes:

• infinitive: sonreír
• gerund: sonriendo

This happens because verbs like oír, leer, creer, traer, and some -eír / -oír verbs often change in the gerund:

• leer → leyendo
• oír → oyendo
• sonreír → sonriendo

So sonriendo is the correct form for smiling.

The accent mark shows the correct stress and also helps distinguish the form.

• siguió = he/she continued (preterite)
• siguio without an accent is not standard Spanish spelling

Spanish often uses accent marks to show where the stress falls, especially when a verb form would otherwise break the normal stress rules.

Here, siguió is pronounced roughly see-GYOH.

Yes, Spanish could leave it out.

Because the verb endings already show the subject, Spanish often omits subject pronouns and sometimes even noun subjects if the context is clear.

So you could have:

• Saludó a veintinueve personas después de la obra y siguió sonriendo.

That would still mean She greeted twenty-nine people after the play and kept smiling, if the context already makes clear who she is.

Here, La actriz is included for clarity or emphasis.

Spanish word order is flexible, but this placement is very natural.

The sentence is organized like this:

• La actriz = subject
• saludó a veintinueve personas = main action
• después de la obra = time phrase
• y siguió sonriendo = second action

You could move the time phrase and still have a correct sentence, for example:

• Después de la obra, la actriz saludó a veintinueve personas y siguió sonriendo.

Both are fine. The original version simply places the time expression after the first action.

Mostly yes, but it can cover a range of greeting actions depending on context.

Saludar can mean:

• to greet
• to say hello to
• to acknowledge someone politely

So saludó a veintinueve personas could mean she greeted them verbally, possibly with a smile, a wave, a handshake, or another social greeting, depending on the situation.

It is broader than just literally saying hello.

Because the sentence describes a sequence of completed past events.

• saludó = she greeted
• siguió = she continued

Even though sonriendo shows an ongoing action, the verb siguió is still a completed past event: at that point in the story, she continued smiling.

This combination is very common in narration:

• a completed action in the past
• followed by another past action that introduces an ongoing activity

So the timeline is:

1. she greeted the people
2. after that, she kept smiling