Question 1

Why does the sentence use the singular estaba when 'the majority' implies many people?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, collective nouns like la mayoría (the majority) or la gente (the people) are grammatically singular. Because the word mayoría is singular, the verb must also be singular (estaba), even though it refers to a group of people. In English, we often say 'the majority were', but Spanish keeps the grammar strictly singular here.

Question 2

Why do we use the imperfect tense (estaba trabajando) instead of the preterite here?

Accepted Answer

The imperfect tense is used here because it describes an ongoing background action in the past with no specific beginning or end mentioned. The statistic is pointing out what was happening continuously at that time, making the imperfect estaba the natural choice for describing the ongoing situation.

Question 3

Is estadística always singular? In English we often say 'statistics indicate'.

Accepted Answer

You can use either depending on the context. La estadística (singular) refers to a single data point, a specific metric, or the general science of statistics. Las estadísticas (plural) refers to a collection of data points. Here, the sentence refers to one specific finding, so the singular is used.

Question 4

If I wanted to change this to say 'more than 50 people were working', how would that connect to my current lesson?

Accepted Answer

You would use más de before the number: La estadística indica que más de 50 personas estaban trabajando. When dealing with specific numbers or quantities, you must use más de (more than) or menos de (less than) instead of más que.

La estadística indica que la mayoría estaba trabajando.

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