Hello! And welcome to
your daily pinch of Spanish. Today I want to continue with directions. I will
tell you the words for north, south, east, and west, and also, more words
you can use to give and ask directions. Let's get started! As always, I've
written a pronunciation guide in parenthesis; you can read more about Spanish
pronunciation here, or click the link above the page. (*This page doesn't exist for now, while I remake my blog here. Sorry about that! I am rebuilding everything here.)
- Norte (Nohr-teh) - North Sur (soor)
- South Este (Ehs-te) - East Oeste (Oh-ehs-teh)
- West To tell a
person you need to go in any of these directions, you can use any of the
following words, as follows: -Hacial el Norte - To the North Hacia translates to 'toward'
-Necesito ir al
Sur - I need to go to the South
Necesito translates to 'I need'; ir translates to 'to go'
- Está hacia el Este -
It's (located) to the East Está translates
to 'is', in this case, it refers to existing in a location.
- Tiene que seguir
hacia el Oeste - You have to continue to the West The word tiene is the formal version of the word tienes, which is a form of the verb tener and it translates to 'have'. Seguir translates to 'continue'.
More location and
direction words: - Izquierda (ees-kee-ehr-dah) - the left
- Derecha (deh-reh-chah) - the right
- Frente a (frehn-teh ah) - front, opposite (something)
- Delante (deh-lahn-teh) - in front, before, opposite (something)
*Both these are
similar in meaning. But delante to my
understanding (in how I use it as a native speaker) is closer, like more
intimate than frente a. I'll give you
examples: Está frente al edificio rojo - it's in front of the red building Se
detuvo delante del espejo - (he, she) Stopped in front of the mirror BUT it can
be used for the same exact purposes. It's the same.
- Detrás (deh-trahs) - behind, at the back
- Atrás (ah-trahs) - behind
*The same as above,
these two have a similar meaning, but the word atrás can
also be used to give directions, when you need to tell a person to move
back. I'll give you examples:
Está detrás de ti -
it's behind you.
Tienes que volver
atrás, nos pasamos del lugar - you have to go back, we missed the place.
You can't use detrás for directions like this; only to locate
things that are behind something, or at the back of something.
- Al lado (ahl lah-doh) - on the side, to the side, at the
side
- Al lado de (ahl lah-doh deh) - next to, beside
*You can also say it
with izquierda and derecha to
specify locations: Al lado izquierdo de - at the left side of Al lado derecho -
at the right side of (Notice that the 'a' at the end changed to 'o'.)
*There is also de lado which means 'sideways'.
- Adelante (ah-deh-lahn-teh) ahead, forward, forwards, to the front
Use this one for directions. For example: Siga hacia adelante - continue
forward/ahead.
If yo need to ask
where something is located, use the question word ¿Dónde?
¿Dónde encuentro ese
lugar? - Where can I find that place?
¿Dónde está
localizado? - Where is it located?
¿Dónde queda? - Where
is it located?
¿Dónde está? - Where
is it?
To read the lesson about question words, click here. (*This link doesn't work for now, while I rebuild my blog. Sorry about that! I had to delete my old website.)
This is it for today!
I hope you enjoyed this lesson. If you have any questions, don't doubt in
contacting me. I will answer all your questions on my Twitter page or
my Facebook page. Do share and follow! Thank you for reading,
and I hope you have a nice day :) Until next time!
