Question 1

How exactly does the phrase le da por work in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

The structure darle por followed by an infinitive (here, seguir) expresses a sudden, often capricious urge to do something, similar to 'taking to' a habit in English. It functions a lot like the verb gustar: the person having the urge is the indirect object. That is why we use the indirect object pronoun le, which points back to a la gente.

Question 2

Why is la gente paired with the singular pronoun le and the singular verb da?

Accepted Answer

Although la gente translates to the plural word 'people' in English, it is a singular collective noun in Spanish. Therefore, all verbs and pronouns associated with it must be in the third-person singular, which is why we see es, le, and da in this sentence.

Question 3

Why does como mean 'since' here instead of 'like' or 'how'?

Accepted Answer

When como is placed at the very beginning of a sentence to introduce a clause, it almost always translates to 'since' or 'given that' to state a cause. If you wanted to state the reason in the middle of the sentence, you would typically use porque instead.

Question 4

Could I just say la gente empieza a seguir esa moda to mean the same thing?

Accepted Answer

Grammatically yes, but you would lose the specific nuance of the sentence. While empezar a simply means 'to start', using the periphrasis darle por highlights the sudden, spontaneous, or whimsical nature of the action. It perfectly captures the idea that people are blindly or capriciously jumping on a bandwagon.

Como es popular, a la gente le da por seguir esa moda.

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