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I was translating a sentence for school en Español and I came across the word "people." I looked it up on Google Translate and it gave me "personas" and also "gente." What is the difference between the two, and the use case for each of these nouns?

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There is a third translation for People: Pueblo (in the sense of nation) for example "One of the guiding mantras of the twentieth century was the self-determination of peoples" or "People's Republic of China" – DeStrangis Jan 28 at 11:26

3 Answers

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The distinction is easier to see when you consider things in terms of countability. In this sense, personas is the plural of persona, refers to many people, and can be used when counting. On the other hand gente is a singular noun, refers to a group of people or many people in general and usually isn't used when specifing numbers.

Example in terms of counting:

○   "Hay veinte personas en esa casa." => "There are twenty (individual) persons in that house."

X   "Hay veinte gente en esa casa." => "There is (a whole of) twenty people in that house."

Example in terms of not counting:

○   "Toda la gente está esperando pacientemente." => "All (of) the people (as a whole) are waiting patiently."


One last thing to note is that while gente isn't interchangeable with personas, the opposite isn't necessarily true. In cases where emphasis or more formality is desired, personas can be used without specifying a number. Thus in the second example, the sentence could also be written as:

○   "Todas las personas están esperando pacientemente." => "All (of) the (individual) persons are waiting patiently."

This is perfectly valid, but sounds a bit awkward for daily use. Regional usage will differ in this fact, I'm sure. That said, personas can make a good fallback if you're unsure whether or not you should use gente.

I hope this helps! :)

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That helped a lot! Thanks so much!! – daviesgeek Apr 11 '12 at 2:08
I just wanted to point out that "Todas las personas están esperando pacientemente" (marked there as wrong) is a perfectly valid Spanish sentence. – Telaclavo Apr 12 '12 at 14:55
@Telaclavo It was never my intention to make it seem like that sentence was incorrect. I reorganized the answer a bit and I think it's cleared things up. Anyways, feel free to edit it more if you still don't think it's clear enough. :) – Miguel Apr 12 '12 at 19:48
@Miguel I said it because there was an "X" just before the sentence, and thought that it could mislead someone. Thanks. – Telaclavo Apr 12 '12 at 20:48
up vote 1 down vote

Gente is called a "collective" noun, for "people," in general.

Persona(s), on the other hand, refer to INDIVIDUAL "people."

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up vote 1 down vote

Creo y espero no equivocarme, que la palabra "gente" siempre se ha referido a una multitud o a mas de una persona. Si yo digo, tu, (o en mi caso) vos sos una buena persona, sería, para mi modo de ver las cosas y mas que nada y MUY importante, lo que me enseñaron en la escuela, es mas que equivocado decirte que vos sos buena "gente".

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