Directions in Spanish -

Spanish warm up!

Before we beginn with the lesson, I want to prove to you that you already can understand a lot in Spanish just by relating what you see and hear to your knowledge of English, your mother language and other languages that you might know.

I have written a simple text in Spanish for you to learn some expressions, dont worry, you will find a translation of the words you need right next to it.

Focus on understanding the meaning, not translating word by word!

A: ¡Disculpa! Estoy perdido. ¿cómo llego a la estación de trenes?

B: ¡Hola! La estación de trenes queda cerca de aquí. Sigue derecho por esta calle, luego, en la esquina gira a la derecha y camina 50 metros. En el semáforo gira a la izquierda y está allí, entre la oficina de correos y el parque.

A: ¡Gracias! Ah, no tengo dinero… ¿dónde puedo
encontrar un banco cerca?

B: En la estación hay un banco, pero no es conveniente. Si en el semáforo cruzas la calle y caminas 5 minutos, en la esquina hay un banco internacional.

A: ¡Vale! ¡Muchísimas gracias!

B: No hay problema. ¡Buen viaje!

Useful words:

disculpa– excuse me

quedar– to be located

derecho- Straight ahead

esquina- the corner

caminar– to walk

semáforo– the traffic light

encontrar– to find

cerca– close

cruzar– to go across

hay– there is

Buen viaje – have a nice trip

Today’s lesson!

We need to be able to give and ask for directions whenever we are traveling in an hispanic country.

So, I have prepared for you some of the most common words and prhases for you to usein this context.

¡Vamos!

Calling someone’s attention

The first thing you need to do is to make people notice you need their help. For that we can say:

Disculpa

Let’s break that down:

Disculpa significa “excuse me” in a casual way. (the conjugation ending in “a” signals the use of the 2nd person singular in an informal context)

It can be used both, to call for someones attention or to excuse yourself for making a mistake.

To be even more polite you can use the “Usted” form, which would be “disculpe“

Pronunciation notes:

In this case the stress is in the middle syllable. So we say /dis.’kul.pa/

Note: everything written in “<…>” is an orthographic transcription, meaning it is exactly the way we spell and write that word or phrase. Everything written in “/…/” is a phonetic transcription, which means it is the way we pronounce it. In the phonetic transcription we separate the syllables with a dot “.” and we mark the strongest syllable with an apostrophe ” … ‘ … “. So <hablar> is pronounced /a.‘blar/

Perdona

Let’s break that down:

Perdona also means “excuse me” but, at least in my opinion, it sounds a bit old fashioned.

“Perdonar” means to “forgive someone”, and when you want to apologize you say “perdón“, don’t confuse those 2.

As before, “perdona” is casual. If you want to be polite you have to say “perdone (Usted)“

Pronunciation notes:

In this case the stress also falls in the middle syllable, so we say /per.’do.na/

Asking for directions

1. ¿Dónde queda/está + definite
article + place?

Let’s break that down:

¿Dónde queda el baño?
¿Dónde está la oficina de correos?
¿Dónde queda la estación?

Grammar notes:

“quedar” (to be located) and “estar”
(to be) mean the same in this context.
The first one is only used to talk about
the location of places, the second one
can be used to ask about the location
of any object or person.

2. ¿Cómo llego a + definite article
(el/la) + place?

Let’s break that down:

¿Cómo llego a la catedral?
¿Cómo llego a la calle Libertad?
¿Cómo llego al teatro? (a + el = al)

Explanation:

This means “how do I get to…?” and
instead of getting an address or a point
of reference as an answer, people will
indicate you exaclty which way to go to
reach your destination.

3.¿Dónde queda + indefinite article
(un/una) + place + cerca?

¿Dónde queda una farmacia cerca?
¿Dónde queda un banco cerca?

Notes:

You can use this phrase to ask if there is a store, bank, park.. or any kind of place close to your standing point. The indefinite article means that you are open to possibilities and not looking for a especific place. “where can I find a … close here?”

4. ¿Cuál es la dirección de + place?

¿Cuál es la dirección del hotel Continental?

(de + el = del)

¿Cuál es la dirección de la oficina?

Notes:

If you ask this question, rather than indications, you will get a proper address with a street’s name, a ouse number and so on. It won’t be useful if you are lost.

5. ¿Dónde puedo encontrar +
place/object?

¿Dónde puedo encontrar un baño?

¿Dónde puedo encontrar una tienda de ropa tradicional?

¿Dónde puedo encontrar una camiseta de “I love Spanish”?

Notes:

This literally means “where can I find
a…?” and it can be use for both, places
and objects. The use of the definite or
indefinite article depends on the
context.