Breakdown of Hay tanto tumulto en el mercado que caminamos apretados.
en
in / on / at
haber
to be (there is / there are)
caminar
to walk
el mercado
the market
que
that / than
tanto
as much / as many / so much
apretado
packed (tight, squeezed)
el tumulto
the crowd
Questions & Answers about Hay tanto tumulto en el mercado que caminamos apretados.
Why is it tanto instead of tan in this sentence?
We use tanto (and its forms tanta, tantos, tantas) when we are talking about the quantity of a noun. Here, tumulto (commotion) is a masculine singular noun, so we use tanto. You only use tan (so) before adjectives and adverbs.
Is tumulto mostly used for noise, or for a physical crowd?
It means both! A tumulto is a noisy uproar or commotion, but it usually implies a chaotic, dense crowd of people making that noise. In a market context, it perfectly describes a loud, bustling mass of shoppers.
Why does apretados end in -os? Shouldn't it be an adverb describing how we walk?
In Spanish, it is very common to use an adjective to describe the physical state of the subject while they do an action. Since it describes the implied subject nosotros (we) rather than just the verb caminamos, it has to agree in gender and number, becoming the masculine plural apretados (squeezed).
Does the que in this sentence ever trigger the subjunctive mood?
Not in this specific type of sentence. When you use tanto... que (so much... that) to express a factual result of an action, the verb that follows stays in the indicative mood, which is why we use the standard present tense caminamos.
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