Sol·licita la vacant; si no, contractaran un altre candidat.

otherwise

Breakdown of Sol·licita la vacant; si no, contractaran un altre candidat.

• altre: other
• la vacant: the job vacancy
• el candidat: the job candidate

Questions & Answers about Sol·licita la vacant; si no, contractaran un altre candidat.

Is sol·licita here an imperative, or does it mean he/she applies?

Here it is most naturally understood as the imperative: Apply for the vacancy.

Why?

• The sentence is giving advice or a warning.
• The second part, si no, contractaran un altre candidat, means otherwise, they will hire another candidate, which fits a command very well.

Formally, sol·licita can also be the third-person singular present of sol·licitar (he/she requests/applies), but in this sentence the context clearly points to the imperative addressed to tu.

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Why does sol·licita have that dot in the middle: l·l?

That dot is called the punt volat. It shows that the two l sounds belong to a geminate l rather than the ll sound.

So:

• l·l = two separate l sounds
• ll = the Catalan sound like the lli in some pronunciations of million, though not exactly the same in all dialects

So sol·licita is spelled with l·l because it comes from sol·licitar, not from a word with ll.

This is a very common spelling feature in Catalan:

• col·legi
• il·lusió
• paral·lel

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