Breakdown of Como es popular, a la gente le da por seguir esa moda.
ser
to be
ese
that (masculine)
a
to
la gente
the people
le
to him / to her / to you (formal)
popular
popular
la
the (feminine)
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
como
since / because (at the beginning of a sentence)
darle por
to take to (doing something)
seguir
to follow
la moda
the trend
Questions & Answers about Como es popular, a la gente le da por seguir esa moda.
How exactly does the phrase le da por work in this sentence?
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.
Why is la gente paired with the singular pronoun le and the singular verb da?
Why does como mean 'since' here instead of 'like' or 'how'?
Could I just say la gente empieza a seguir esa moda to mean the same thing?
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.
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