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La gente è molto felice.

La gente è molto felice.
The people are very happy.
From Lesson 16:Expressing quantity (molto, poco, tanto)·Italian

Breakdown of La gente è molto felice.

essere
to be
molto
very
felice
happy
la gente
the people

Questions & Answers about La gente è molto felice.

Why is it molto and not molta, since la gente is feminine?
In this sentence, molto means "very" and is describing the adjective felice (happy). When molto is used as an adverb like this, it never changes its ending. It only changes to match gender and number when it describes a noun, for example, if you wanted to say "a lot of people" (molta gente).
Why do we use è (is) when the English translation says "people are"?
In Italian, the word gente (people) is a singular feminine noun. Think of it like "the crowd" or "the public" in English. Because it is a singular noun, it needs a singular verb: è (is).
If la gente is feminine, why doesn't felice end in an "-a"?
Not all feminine adjectives end in "-a". Felice belongs to a group of adjectives that end in "-e" in the singular for both masculine and feminine nouns. Because la gente is singular, the adjective stays felice. (If it were plural, it would change to felici).
Could I use tanto instead of molto in this sentence?
Yes, you could say La gente è tanto felice. Just like molto, when tanto is used as an adverb right before an adjective to mean "very" or "so", it stays exactly the same and does not change its ending.

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