to hold the door, to hold the elevator

Question

What is the best way to say "to hold" in these sentences? ¿Cuál es la mejor manera decir "to hold" en estas oraciones?

Hold the door, please. Mantiene la puerta abierta, por favor.

Hold the elevator, please. Detiene el elevador, por favor.

¿Así se dice o hay otra manera decirlo? Se puede decir "agarra la puerta"?

Gracias de antemano.

Answer 1

Detenga el elevador

Detenga abierta la puerta

Mantener is for a longer time than Detener so with your examples, Detener should be used.

Thanks, Julian - alba3, May 12, 2010

Answer 2

Alba, I have researched in my Wordsworth and I also typed in a websearch: "mantener la puerta abierta" and definitely came up with "to hold the door". I also tried "detener el elevador (el acensor)" and came up with "stop the elevator", but it seemed to be more of a "how to keep from stopping the elevator between floors". On the other hand, if a person were racing to the elevator and it was getting ready to close, probably "detenga el elevador, por favor!" would do it.

"Agarra" seemed to mean more of "catch the door as it is closing", which is a sort of "hold the door", but probably a little more of an interruption of the door closing on someone.

Don't you love this stuff? Maybe I'm a sick woman, but I just love this stuff!! Thanks for thinking of these neat questions.

thanks. yes, I love this stuff, too, ecspecially now that I've got a whole forum of folks to help me figure out the answers :) - alba3, May 12, 2010