Annotated Institutional Text

Institutional Catalan has to do several jobs at once: identify who is affected, define a procedure, impose deadlines, and sound impartial. The result can be precise without becoming opaque. The notice below is an original government-style model written for this guide; no real application or legal right depends on it.

Complete notice: neighborhood garden grants

Avís d'obertura de la convocatòria d'ajuts per a horts comunitaris

S'informa les entitats veïnals que, del 3 al 28 de febrer de 2027, es podran presentar sol·licituds per finançar projectes d'horts comunitaris.

Als efectes d'aquesta convocatòria, s'entén per hort comunitari l'espai cultivat sense ànim de lucre i gestionat col·lectivament per persones residents al municipi.

Cada entitat ha de presentar una memòria breu, un pressupost desglossat i l'autorització d'ús del terreny. La documentació s'ha de trametre mitjançant la seu electrònica abans de les 23.59 h del 28 de febrer. Si falta algun document, es requerirà l'entitat interessada perquè l'aporti en un termini de deu dies hàbils.

Les sol·licituds es valoraran d'acord amb tres criteris: benefici ambiental, participació del veïnat i viabilitat econòmica. La resolució es publicarà el 30 d'abril de 2027. Contra aquesta resolució es podrà interposar el recurs que correspongui d'acord amb la normativa aplicable.

Per a consultes, es pot escriure a l'Oficina de Participació Ciutadana. La presentació d'una consulta no suspèn el termini de sol·licitud.

The text is complete and rights-cleared. It deliberately includes one conventionally dense sentence—the sentence beginning Si falta algun document—so that we can compare legal precision with a plain-language alternative.

Idiomatic English translation

Notice announcing the opening of applications for community-garden grants

Neighborhood organizations are informed that applications for funding community-garden projects may be submitted from February 3 to February 28, 2027.

For the purposes of this call, a community garden means a space cultivated on a nonprofit basis and collectively managed by people who reside in the municipality.

Each organization must submit a short project description, an itemized budget, and authorization to use the land. The documents must be sent through the online portal before 11:59 p.m. on February 28. If any document is missing, the organization concerned will be formally asked to provide it within ten working days.

Applications will be assessed according to three criteria: environmental benefit, neighborhood participation, and financial viability. The decision will be published on April 30, 2027. The appropriate appeal may be filed against that decision in accordance with the applicable regulations.

Questions may be sent to the Citizen Participation Office. Submitting a question does not suspend the application deadline.

English frequently introduces an explicit passive subject (“organizations are informed”), while Catalan is comfortable keeping the institutional actor offstage.

The recurring agentless structures are developed separately in administrative style and the se-passive; here their effect is best understood inside one complete notice.

Numbered annotations

1. S'informa: impersonal se, not a reflexive action

In S'informa les entitats veïnals que..., no one is “informing themselves.” The clitic se suppresses the agent and presents the announcement as an institutional act. The postverbal plural phrase les entitats veïnals is the recipient, not a passive subject; therefore the verb remains singular. In less formal public language, naming the institution is clearer: L'Ajuntament informa les entitats...

The first is (formal administrative) and agentless; the second is plainer because it answers “who says this?”

2. Dates take articles and compact administrative formatting

The range del 3 al 28 de febrer de 2027 contracts de + el to del and a + el to al. Catalan normally writes day + de + month + de + year, with the month in lowercase. The time 23.59 h follows a common official twenty-four-hour convention; ordinary prose can say a les dotze menys un minut de la nit.

3. Es podran presentar combines modality with a passive reading

In es podran presentar sol·licituds, the plural verb agrees with sol·licituds. This is naturally read as a se-passive: “applications may be submitted.” Compare singular es podrà presentar una sol·licitud. The future gives the notice prospective force; it does not express probability here.

4. Definitions use s'entén per X Y

The frame s'entén per hort comunitari... establishes a definition valid inside this document. Als efectes d'aquesta convocatòria limits that definition: it need not exhaust every everyday meaning of hort comunitari. This limiting formula is (formal/legal).

English often uses “X means...” directly. Catalan can too—Un hort comunitari és...—and that version is usually better for a general audience.

5. Ha de expresses obligation; cal can depersonalize it

Cada entitat ha de presentar assigns a requirement to a named actor. In contemporary standard Catalan, haver de + infinitive is the ordinary obligation periphrasis. Tenir que presentar is a Spanish-influenced form rejected in careful standard usage. An impersonal alternative is cal presentar, useful when the actor is obvious.

6. S'ha de trametre is obligation, not present perfect

The sequence s'ha de trametre contains se + ha de + infinitive: “must be sent.” It is not the perfect s'ha tramès “has been sent.” The infinitive after de makes the structure visible. Trametre is standard and common in administration; enviar is a plainer everyday synonym.

The second version directly addresses readers with vós morphology (heu), a standard choice in Catalan public communication because it avoids gender marking and remains respectful.

7. A future passive hides the enforcing institution

Es requerirà l'entitat interessada perquè l'aporti means that the administration will formally request the missing document. The direct object is a definite person-like entity, so formal Catalan can mark it with personal a in some structures, but this impersonal construction traditionally appears without an overt agent. The clitic l' in l'aporti resumes algun document: it is not an article.

That plain-language revision names the actor, addresses the recipient, and replaces the abstract verb requerir with demanar—without losing the condition or deadline.

8. Appeals preserve legal caution

Es podrà interposar el recurs que correspongui uses the subjunctive correspongui because the exact appeal is left unspecified. The relative clause does not identify a known, established appeal; it restricts the choice to whichever appeal is legally appropriate. Normativa aplicable is accurate legal shorthand, but a real plain-language notice should name or link the rules whenever possible.

9. A consultation does not stop the clock

The last sentence blocks a plausible but dangerous inference. La presentació d'una consulta is a nominalization: a verb-like event (presentar una consulta) packaged as a noun phrase. No suspèn means “does not pause”; the false friend English “suspend” can sound punitive, but here it concerns time.

Plain-language critique

The notice is grammatical, but three revisions would make it easier to act on:

1. Name the issuer in the first sentence: L'Ajuntament informa...
2. Address the organization directly in the instructions: Heu d'enviar...
3. Split the missing-document rule: Si hi falta cap document, us ho comunicarem. Tindreu deu dies hàbils per presentar-lo.

The direct vós strategy (heu d'enviar, us ho comunicarem) is usable across regions. (regional: Valencian) public bodies may prefer lexical choices or institutional names specific to Valencian administration, while the grammatical patterns here remain standard under both IEC and AVL norms.

Read-aloud version

Read the heading as a noun phrase, not a full sentence. In each instruction, stress the required item and the deadline: una memòria breu... abans de les vint-i-tres cinquanta-nou. Pause after the definition's term—hort comunitari—before giving its meaning. Read lists with a slight rise on all but the last item. Avoid rushing formulae such as d'acord amb: listeners need to hear where the legal relation begins.

Comprehension checks

1. Who is eligible to submit, and what three documents are required?
2. Which two different se constructions appear in the notice?
3. What does l' refer to in perquè l'aporti?
4. Does sending a question extend the deadline?
5. Why is correspongui in the subjunctive?

Transformation exercises

1. Rewrite S'informa les entitats... with L'Ajuntament as an explicit subject.
2. Change plural es podran presentar sol·licituds to singular una sol·licitud.
3. Replace administrative s'ha de trametre with a direct vós instruction.
4. Turn Als efectes d'aquesta convocatòria, s'entén per... into the plainer frame X és....
5. Split the sentence about a missing document into two short sentences while preserving the ten-working-day rule.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Agentless se creates institutional distance; an explicit issuer often improves clarity.
• A se-passive agrees with its subject: es presentarà una sol·licitud / es presentaran sol·licituds.
• Standard obligation uses haver de + infinitive or impersonal cal + infinitive.
• Definitions, deadlines, and remedies must remain precise even when syntax is simplified.