Tranvía Cuenca website

I spent a few weeks in Cuenca in 2015 and 2018, and they were then building a municipal train. Out of curiosity I googled for it, and found the train is operating now and serves 20,000 riders a day. But I have two questions about the Spanish in the website.

(1) The route map shows a stop at “M. 3 de Noviembre”. From context, I assume this is “3rd of November street” or “3rd of November plaza” or something of the sort. Anybody have an idea what “M.” stands for?

(2) The page https://tranvia.cuenca.gob.ec/mL/#/sugerencias begins with “¿Comó podemos ayudarte?” is that just a typo for “Cómo", or am I misunderstanding something?

¡Hola!

¡Muchas gracias por las preguntas! 

The abbreviation for M. is a fascinating question. As this is localised knowledge, contacting someone from Cuenca to get a definitive answer would be best. However, it is possible that the date the street name refers to is Separation Day, which took place on the 3rd of November 1903 and is the day Panamá separated from Colombia. While this day is a national celebration for Panamá, it is important to note that both Panamá and Ecuador were part of Gran Colombia and share this historic bond. Therefore, it is possible that the M. in this street name is an abbreviation for Martes, which is Spanish for "Tuesday," in reference to Separation Day.

Regarding your second question, I would be inclined to think this might be a typo. The word cómo seems to refer to “how” in this context, as the sentence is ¿Cómo podemos ayudarte? meaning, “How can we help you?” Similar to qué “what,” cómo “how” requires a tilde or “accent” to indicate that the sentence is interrogative, meaning a question. Evidently, language is always changing and evolving in different ways. However, using the tilde “accent” on the first o in cómo “how” is a well-established feature of Spanish, according to the Real Academica Española. 

¡Espero que tengas un día increíble!

Indy