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Dicen que el grafiti tiene una maldición.

Dicen que el grafiti tiene una maldición.
They say that the graffiti has a curse.
From Lesson 245:Impersonal third-person plural (dicen que)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Dicen que el grafiti tiene una maldición.

Who exactly is saying this if there is no subject like ellos before dicen?
This is an impersonal use of the third-person plural. By using dicen without a subject pronoun, it translates to a general "people say," "they say," or "it is said." If you explicitly added ellos, it would mean a specific group of people is saying it, rather than just a general rumor.
Can I drop the word que and just say "Dicen el grafiti...", since we often drop "that" in English?
No, you can't drop it. In English, we can say "They say [that] the graffiti...", but in Spanish, the conjunction que is strictly required to connect the two parts of the sentence.
Why is grafiti spelled with only one 'f' and one 't' here?
Spanish modifies many borrowed foreign words to fit its own spelling and pronunciation rules. Since the double 'f' and double 't' don't exist in native Spanish words, the spelling is simplified to grafiti.
Is there a rule to help me remember why it is una maldición and not un maldición?
Yes! As a very reliable rule, Spanish nouns that end in the suffix -ción (like maldición, canción, or estación) are feminine. Therefore, it requires the feminine article una.

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