Locations (and

prepositions)
Asking where
you might hear
something is
Once you've got your está and
We've already covered how to ask your hay situation sorted, here
where something are some of the responses you
is using "¿Dónde está...?" for might hear in Spanish. I've
specific places, and "¿Dónde highlighted some important
hay...?" for less specific places. prepositions that you should
definitely tuck into your
For instance if you were looking vocabulary toolbox. These will
for the Museum of Natural come in handy!
History, or a particular street,
you'd use está because you're En frente de la plaza
looking for a specific place. Across from the park
¿Dónde está el Museo de Al lado de la gasolinera
Ciencias Naturales? Next to the gas station
Where is the Museum of Natural Detrás del teatro
History? Behind the theater
¿Dónde está la Avenida San Entre la farmacia y el correo
Martín? Between the pharmacy and the
Where is San Martin Avenue? post office
En la esquina
But if you were looking for a drug
On the corner
store/pharmacy, you'd use hay,
because you're not looking for a You might also hear...
specific one. Just any old one will
do. A dos cuadras
Two blocks (from here)
A diez minutos
¿Dónde hay una farmacia?
Ten minutes (from here)
Where is a pharmacy / drug
store Es la próxima
It's the next one
(An easy way to remember it is Es la primera
that you use está with definite It’s the first one
articles (i.e., "the")
and hay with indefinite Es la segunda
articles (i.e., "a", "an"). Check out It’s the second one
this lesson on definite and Es la tercera
indefinite articles if you need to It’s the third one
brush up.)
 Go straight ahead
Verbs you might
hear when
asking And then
directions there's public
Other times people might need to transport
give you more specific directions,
so they'll tell you to "walk two If you ask "¿Está lejos?" ("Is it
blocks", "turn left", or far?") and the answer is "Sí",
"continue on for half a mile..." then you might need to take some
public transport. Someone might
So make sure you brush up on say to you...
some of these verbs you might
hear. Toma...
Take...
Remember that in Spanish we ... el autobús
have formal and informal ways of ... the bus
using these verbs:
... el metro
 “tú” or “vos” (informal you ... the subway
forms) ... el tren
 “usted” (formal) ... the train
... un taxi
Let’s look at the “tú”, which is the ... a taxi
most likely form of the verb
people will use when giving you
directions on the street. You
might hear people use verbs like
this:

Dobla a la izquierda
Gira a la izquierda
Turn left
Dobla a la derecha
Gira a la derecha
Turn right
Ve por..
Take/walk along...
Cruza...
Cross...
Sigue...
Continue / follow...
Sigue derecho