While "people" is a countable plural noun in English, "gente" in Spanish refers to people in a general sense and is not grammatically countable. Native Spanish and English speakers often incorrectly treat "gente" as countable by saying things like "the people are" instead of the proper "people are". Additionally, they may say "persons" instead of "people/gente" when a specific plural group is meant, like saying "I saw three persons" rather than "I saw three people". Proper usage is important to program securely in the mind.

1. Talking about
PEOPLE

2. easy, but very, very often it is done incorrectly
by native Spanish speakers.
"The people is stupid."
The same thing happens with native English
speakers, when talking about people in Spanish,
and they make the same error just as often.
"Gente son estúpidos."
So what's up with that??
Talking about people in English is

3. Here's the deal:
Most nouns that are countable in English (meaning that they
can be counted and can have plural form) are also countable in
Spanish:
car / cars -- carro / los carros
drug / drugs -- droga / las drogas
Not the case with "people"
"People", which means "gente" in Spanish, is most
commonly used (precisely 97.38% of the time) to express a
plurality of human beings, which makes it countable.
1 person / 2 people / 392 people / some people
several people / a buttload of people

4. "Gente", the Spanish term for "people", while referring to a
general plurality of people, is not grammatically a countable
word.
An example of a general plurality is the following:
Así es la gente. (That's how people are.)
Spanish, literally translated, says - That's how the people is.
We use "the" (la) only when referring to specific groups of
people, not people in general:
La gente es extraña. -- People are strange.
La gente en el estadio es extraña.
-- The people in the stadium are strange.
La gente cree en Dios. -- The people believes in God.
Gente creen en Dios. -- People believe in God.

5. No hubo mucha gente.
There wasn't much people.
No hubo muchas gente(s).
There weren't many people.
__________________
Así es la gente.
That's how the people is.
Así son la gente.
That's how people are.
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La gente está muy emocionada hoy.
The people is very excited today.
Gente están muy emocionadas hoy.
People are very excited today.

6. Another common mistake trying to express "people"
made by native Spanish speakers / English learners is
using the word "persons".
"I saw three persons in the car."
In Spanish, to talk about a specific plurality, "people" is
expressed as "personas":
Vi tres personas en el auto.
(I saw three people in the car.).
Spanish, literally translated, says - "I saw three persons
in the car."
And so it's easy to see above where the error originates,
and also why translation is not a trustworthy friend..

7. So, to program the detail securely into the mind,
just write a few simple sentences that show you
get the idea.
Some people are smart.
I saw several people I know at the party.
People like bread.
How many beautiful powerful people would a
pitiful piano player plagiarize if pitiful piano
players plagiarized beautiful powerful people?