The difference between ‘a gente’, ‘agente’ and ‘gente’

A gente can be used as a substitute for nós (‘we’) in informal situations.

It’s extremely common but it’s not often mentioned in Brazilian Portuguese textbooks or grammar books because a gente, grammatically, is not considered a personal pronoun.

For example,  the sentence: “We speak Portuguese.” can be said either
Nós falamos português.
OR
A gente fala português.

** Note that, grammatically, it takes the same conjugation of você, ele, ela.
If we were to include it in the conjugation chart it would look like this:

Eu Você / Ele / Ela A gente Nós Vocês / Eles / Elas

falo fala fala falamos falam

Check out the video at the end of the post – It’s a very popular song from the Eighties that uses a gente in its lyrics.

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Agente Secreto (Secret Agent)

A gente is more common in colloquial spoken Portuguese, but when you write it down make sure you write a gente and *not* agente, which means ‘agent’.

 

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Now let’s have a look at some meanings of the word gente:

• people, folk

Tem gente que não gosta de ir ao cinema. / There are people who don’t like going to the cinema.

* You can also say pessoas for “people”:

Tem pessoas que não gostam de ir ao cinema./ There are people who don’t like going to the cinema.

• The inhabitants of a region, country, population.

 gente do campo  / country people

• group of people with same interests, congregation, community.

gente do mundo de negócios / business people

• family/folks

A minha gente veio de longe. / My folks came from afar.

• ‘guys’ – used to catch the attention of a group of people

Gente, vamos se não vamos chegar atrasados! / Guys, let’s go or we’re going to be late!

The word gente can also be used as an interjection, expressing astonishment, surprise (good or bad):

Gente! What is this?  / Gosh! What is this?
Gente! Que complicado! / Gosh! How complicated! 

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Some expressions with ‘gente’

(source: uol dictionary)

falam como gente grande: they talk like grown-ups
gente de bem: honest people, persons of rank
muita gente: many people
gente do mar: sailors, mariners
também ser gente: to have the same rights
gente de trabalho: work people 
gente rica: well-off people
tem gente chamando: there is somebody calling 
trabalhar como gente grande: to work like hell

Song: O Nosso A Gente Inventa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

O Nosso Amor A Gente Inventa O teu amor é uma mentira Que a minha vaidade quer E o meu, poesia de cego Você não pode ver Não pode ver que no meu mundo Um troço qualquer morreu Num corte lento e profundo Entre você e eu O nosso amor a gente inventa Pra se distrair E quando acaba a gente pensa Que ele nunca existiu O nosso amor a gente inventa, inventa O nosso amor a gente inventa Te ver não é mais tão bacana Quanto a semana passada Você nem arrumou a cama Parece que fugiu de casa Mas ficou tudo fora de lugar Café sem açúcar, dança sem par Você podia ao menos me contar Uma história romântica O nosso amor a gente inventa Pra se distrair E quando acaba a gente pensa Que ele nunca existiu

We Create Our Love Your love is a lie That my vanity longs for And mine is poetry for the blind You can’t see it You can’t see that in my world Something died In a slow, deep cut Between you and me We create our love to entertain ourselves And when it’s over we think That it never existed We create our love, we do We create our love Seeing you is not so cool anymore Like it was last week You didn’t even make your bed It feels like you ran away from home But everything is out of place now Coffee without sugar, dance without a date You could at least have told me A romantic story We create our love To entertain ourselves And when it’s over we think It never existed