Breakdown of Los vendedores traen tantas carretillas que chocan con la gente.
con
with
traer
to bring
la gente
the people
que
that / than
el vendedor
salesperson
tanto
as much / as many / so much
chocar
to crash
la carretilla
handcart
Questions & Answers about Los vendedores traen tantas carretillas que chocan con la gente.
Why do we use tantas here instead of tan?
Why is the preposition con used for "into" in chocan con?
Verbs in Spanish often require specific prepositions that don't translate word-for-word to English. The verb chocar (to crash or collide) almost always takes con. Literally, you are saying that they "crash with" the people.
Since chocan just means "they crash", how do we know if it refers to the sellers or the handcarts?
Grammatically, the dropped subject "they" could refer to either the plural sellers (los vendedores) or the plural handcarts (las carretillas). Spanish often leaves these ambiguities to be resolved entirely by context. Here, common sense tells us the sellers are the ones directing the carts and crashing into people.
I always forget: why is la gente translated as "the people" but treated as a singular noun?
Gente is a collective noun. It refers to a group of individuals as a single unit, much like the English word "crowd". Even though it translates to the plural "people", it is strictly feminine and singular in Spanish. If the people were the ones doing the crashing, the verb would have to be singular: la gente choca.
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