trabaja? trabajan?

Question

In LEARN SPANISH 2.1 there is an example ¿Quién trabaja en la oficina? The answer is: el hombre de negocios y la recepcionista trabaja en la oficina.

The answer contain two persons. Why the answer use trabaja, but not trabajan?

trabajan* - Rey_Mysterio, May 16, 2012

Answer 1

Cause it is not correct, you're taking about two people here, that's of course plural, so it's actually trabajan instead of trabaja

Because - Eddy, May 16, 2012

Yes...they must've made a typo - PumpkinCalabaza, May 16, 2012

The Spanish lessons here at Spanish Dict are excellent. I am on the 3rd level. In the first two levels, I found mistakes here and there. They are not serious. So far, I have not mentioned them to the staff here. I don't know how easy they would be to fix - Esteban3304, May 17, 2012

Answer 2

I agree with Diagonx.

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Welcome to the forum, Cubic.

Answer 3

Well I think it is correct. The singular tense is required because of the word quién which is singular. The subsequent explanation of the amount of people is a response to the question in the singular tense. Consider the following where I am introducing my family,

Aquí está mi familia, mi esposa, mi hijo, mi hija y yo.

Está is used because of mi familia but notice that there are four people in my family.

Answer 4

I think its right, because at the moment when the question was done, the questioner didn't know who was working in the office, and the answer could have been "nobodie", "one person" or "two or more people".