Annotated Instructions and Public Notice

A good public notice must guide several kinds of reader quickly: someone entering normally, someone facing a locked door, and someone responding to an emergency. Catalan notices therefore combine direct imperatives, impersonal obligation, concise infinitives, prohibition, and conventional politeness. The original notice below comes from an imagined civic center and uses contemporary standard Catalan.

Complete original notice

CENTRE CÍVIC — ACCÉS A LA SALA D'ACTES
1. Per entrar-hi, passeu la targeta pel lector i espereu que s'encengui el llum verd.
2. Cal mostrar l'acreditació al personal de recepció.
3. No deixeu bosses davant de les portes ni bloquegeu les sortides d'emergència.
4. Si la porta està tancada, truqueu al timbre; no la forceu.
5. En cas d'evacuació, no feu servir l'ascensor: sortiu per l'escala i seguiu les indicacions del personal.
6. Es prega mantenir els telèfons en silenci durant els actes.
7. Abans de marxar, assegureu-vos que no hi heu deixat cap objecte personal.
8. Gràcies per la vostra col·laboració.

This text is original and rights-cleared for this guide. Its fictional institution and procedures are used only to demonstrate language; they are not real safety instructions for a particular building.

Idiomatic English translation

CIVIC CENTER — ACCESS TO THE ASSEMBLY HALL
To enter, pass your card over the reader and wait for the green light to come on.
Accreditation must be shown to reception staff.
Do not leave bags in front of the doors or block the emergency exits.
If the door is closed, ring the bell; do not force it.
In the event of evacuation, do not use the lift: leave by the stairs and follow staff instructions.
Please keep phones on silent during events.
Before leaving, make sure that you have not left any personal belongings behind.
Thank you for your cooperation.

The English translation changes grammatical strategy more than once. Catalan impersonal cal becomes passive “must be shown,” while institutional es prega becomes the ordinary English courtesy marker “please.” A mechanically literal translation would misrepresent the register.

Read-aloud version

Public instructions should be read in short information units. The slashes below mark pauses, not extra punctuation:

Per entrar-hi / passeu la targeta pel lector / i espereu que s'encengui el llum verd. // Cal mostrar l'acreditació / al personal de recepció. // No deixeu bosses davant de les portes / ni bloquegeu les sortides d'emergència. // Si la porta està tancada / truqueu al timbre; / no la forceu. // En cas d'evacuació / no feu servir l'ascensor: / sortiu per l'escala / i seguiu les indicacions del personal. // Abans de marxar / assegureu-vos / que no hi heu deixat cap objecte personal.

Give emergency actions a calm falling contour. The aim is intelligibility, not theatrical urgency. In the title, d'actes is joined by apostrophe; it is not pronounced as two unrelated words.

Numbered annotation

1. An infinitive sets the circumstance; imperatives give the steps

Per entrar-hi means “in order to enter there.” Per + infinitive introduces purpose, and locative hi recovers a la sala d'actes. The notice then switches to plural imperatives passeu and espereu, addressing its readers collectively. Catalan does not need to repeat vosaltres because the verb endings identify the addressees.

The card moves pel lector, “past/over the reader,” where pel contracts per + el. In espereu que s'encengui, the present subjunctive s'encengui describes the event being awaited. It is not yet presented as a fact when the instruction is issued.

The affirmative imperative page gives the full paradigm behind forms such as passeu and espereu.

2. Cal expresses obligation without naming an authority

Cal mostrar l'acreditació presents the action as necessary. Impersonal cal + infinitive has no overt subject and does not specify whether the rule comes from reception staff, management, or security policy. That makes it efficient in public information.

A more direct alternative is Heu de mostrar l'acreditació, using haver de + infinitive. It clearly addresses plural readers and sounds somewhat more personal. S'ha de mostrar l'acreditació is another impersonal formulation. All three can state obligation; the notice chooses cal for brevity, not because the others are ungrammatical.

3. Negative imperatives coordinate two prohibitions

No deixeu and ni bloquegeu are negative plural imperatives. Their forms coincide with the second-person plural present subjunctive, because Catalan forms negative commands with no + subjunctive. Ni extends the scope of the first negation: do not do A or B.

For the contrast with affirmative forms and pronoun position, see negative imperatives.

The phrase davant de les portes identifies a position in front of them. Sortides d'emergència is a compound noun phrase: d'emergència classifies what kind of exits they are. The notice omits articles before bosses because it prohibits bags as a category in that position, not only some previously identified bags.

4. A real condition followed by an action and a warning

Si la porta està tancada describes a possible present state, so it uses present indicative està. The instruction truqueu al timbre follows only if the condition holds. The semicolon separates the recommended action from the short prohibition no la forceu. Feminine direct-object la refers to la porta.

English speakers sometimes expect a future form after si. Catalan, like English in ordinary real conditions, normally uses the present here: si està, not future si estarà.

5. Emergency sequencing and fer servir

En cas d'evacuació is a formal, economical condition meaning “in the event of evacuation.” No feu servir l'ascensor uses the idiom fer servir (“to use”), with irregular imperative feu. After the colon, affirmative sortiu and seguiu give the safe sequence.

Per l'escala marks the route taken, not purpose: leave by way of the stairs. Les indicacions del personal means the instructions given by staff collectively. Catalan normally uses singular mass-like el personal, not a plural modeled on English “staff members.”

6. Institutional politeness with es prega

Es prega mantenir… is an impersonal, (formal/administrative) request: literally, “it is requested to keep…”. It avoids directly commanding the reader. This formula remains common on signs, but it can sound bureaucratic in speech.

The alternative above names the institution as we and addresses the public with us, followed by the subjunctive mantingueu. It is often warmer and more transparent. A simple Mantingueu els telèfons en silenci is direct but not inherently rude on a concise sign.

7–8. Final check, pronoun placement, and courtesy

Abans de marxar uses abans de + infinitive because the understood person leaving is the same reader addressed by assegureu-vos. The reflexive pronoun attaches with a hyphen to the affirmative imperative. After a negative imperative it would stand before the verb: no us oblideu…

Que no hi heu deixat cap objecte is a factual content clause after assegurar-se: check that a completed event has not occurred. The present perfect heu deixat relates the possible leaving-behind to the current departure. Locative hi refers to the room. With preverbal no, cap objecte means “no/any object.”

The closing Gràcies per la vostra col·laboració recognizes compliance rather than giving another order. Possessive vostra matches the plural collective address established by the imperatives.

Infinitive labels versus full commands

Public signage often uses stand-alone infinitives such as Empènyer, Estirar, or No fumar. These function as compact labels or impersonal directives. They are especially natural where space is limited and the action is immediately obvious.

In a multi-step notice, however, a string such as Passar la targeta, esperar el llum i no forçar la porta can sound like note-form instructions with no consistent relationship to the reader. Finite imperatives—passeu, espereu, no forceu—make the sequence and audience clearer. Neither strategy is universally superior; genre and layout determine the choice.

Register and regional notes

The notice uses standard forms understandable across Catalan-speaking regions. Sortida d'emergència is the usual form in much of Catalonia; eixida d'emergència is a standard (regional: Valencian) alternative. A real institution should use the established public terminology of its location rather than mixing variants for decorative effect.

The forms passeu, espereu, truqueu, sortiu, seguiu can address plural vosaltres. The same morphology can also serve singular respectful vós, but the public-notice context naturally permits a collective plural reading. A notice consistently addressing formal singular vostè would instead use third-person forms such as passi and esperi. Mixing passeu with passi without a deliberate change of addressee makes the institutional voice unstable.

In Balearic, Northwestern, Northern, or Alguerese settings, local vocabulary and article use may appear in community-facing texts. Safety and access notices should prioritize locally recognized, officially appropriate wording; this sample does not claim to represent every administrative convention.

Common Mistakes

Comprehension and transformation practice

1. Why does line 1 use s'encengui rather than s'encén?
2. Rewrite Cal mostrar l'acreditació with haver de, keeping plural address.
3. What do la in no la forceu and hi in hi heu deixat refer to?
4. Replace the administrative Es prega mantenir… with a warmer institutional request.
5. Convert No deixeu bosses davant de les portes into the compact infinitive style of a sign.
6. Adapt sortides d'emergència for a locally Valencian notice.

Suggested answers: (1) the light coming on is an awaited, not-yet-realized event after esperar que; (2) Heu de mostrar l'acreditació; (3) the door and the room respectively; (4) Us demanem que mantingueu els telèfons en silenci; (5) No deixar bosses davant de les portes; (6) eixides d'emergència.

Key Takeaways

• Infinitive phrases efficiently frame purpose and time; finite imperatives identify the instructed audience.
• Cal + infinitive, haver de + infinitive, and s'ha de + infinitive present obligation with different degrees of impersonality.
• Negative imperatives use no + present subjunctive; affirmative imperatives attach pronouns after the verb.
• Es prega is formal and impersonal, while us demanem que is more explicit and relational.
• Pronouns such as hi and la keep the notice concise only when their referents remain unmistakable.
• Regional public terminology should be localized deliberately, especially sortida/eixida, without mixing address systems.