The Difference between A GENTE, AGENTE and GENTE

Fernando Nonohay Nonohay Author

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:

Check out the video at the end of the post - It's a very popular song from the Eighties that uses a gentein its lyrics.

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'.

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! 

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