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Learn Spanish Quiz: Disney Trolley Warning

Disney Spanish Quiz


This warning sign mounted on a trolley surprised, even disappointed me. As a business student, one company you always hear about as an example of how to manage a business well is Disney. Their commitment to creativity, customer service and detail in their parks is held aloft as a goal for other companies to achieve.

Seeing the basic Spanish error on this sign did not speak well for their supposed attention to detail. One simple letter would have corrected the Spanish mistake. So what’s the needed letter and where should it go?

The answer is that there is an S missing at the end of sentado. The phrase should read mantenganse sentados, instead of sentado. This error becomes even more ridiculous when you realize that ON THE LINE ABOVE, on the same sign, they have the correct grammar with mantengan los niños sentados.

Spanish Mistakes
As a second, optional correction in the sign, manténganse could include an accent over the E. Generally when a word has all caps, the accents are not included, but occasionally you will see them added.

Why is the S necessary? With the word manténganse being 3rd person, plural, the word sentados needs to have the S, to be in agreement with the manténganse plurality. Sentado without the S is for a single item. Another correction that would work with the sign is Manténgase sentado… although to be strict you would then also need to change the first two lines to read Mantenga los niños sentados.

Anyone care to explain why mantengan is used in the first line, but mantenganse with the -SE is required for the third line in the sign?

Check out these other articles to help you Learn Spanish.

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