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Había demasiada gente, por lo que decidimos no entrar.

Había demasiada gente, por lo que decidimos no entrar.
There were too many people, which is why we decided not to go in.
From Lesson 457:Consequences (por lo que, en consecuencia)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Había demasiada gente, por lo que decidimos no entrar.

Why is había singular here when "people" is plural in English?
In Spanish, the noun gente is singular and feminine, even though it refers to a group of people. Furthermore, when using the verb haber to say "there was" or "there were", standard Spanish keeps it in the singular form (había or hubo), regardless of whether the noun that follows is singular or plural.
Why does demasiado change to demasiada in this sentence?
Here, demasiado is acting as an adjective quantifying the noun gente, so it must agree with it in gender and number. Since gente is a feminine singular noun, it becomes demasiada. If you were using it as an adverb to describe an action (like hablar demasiado, meaning "to talk too much"), it would not change.
Why do we use the imperfect había but then switch to the preterite decidimos?
This is a great example of how the two past tenses work together. Había demasiada gente sets the scene and describes an ongoing background condition (imperfect). In contrast, decidimos no entrar was the specific, one-off decision you made as a result of that background situation (preterite).
Can I use así que or por eso instead of por lo que?
Yes, absolutely! Por lo que translates nicely to "which is why" or "for which reason." It is a connector that refers back to the entire previous situation (the fact that there was a crowd). It sounds slightly more elevated than así que (so) or por eso (that's why), but they are often interchangeable.
Why is the negative word no placed right before the infinitive entrar?
When you need to make an infinitive verb negative in Spanish, the no always goes directly in front of it. Because the people making the decision and the people (not) entering are the same, you use the infinitive rather than conjugating again, exactly like in English: "we decided not to go in."

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