Learn how to ask "Where?"
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| Hola a todos! Soy Lucia. Hi everybody! I’m Lucia. |
| Welcome to SpanishPod101.com’s Español en tres minutos. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Spanish. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to ask "What" in Spanish. |
| This time, we are going to ask questions using the interrogative word "Where?" |
| Imagine you want to ask where your friend is now. You will ask him ¿Dónde estás? This is the exact translation of "Where are you?" |
| [slowly] ¿Dónde estás? |
| Let’s break down this question. |
| First we had- |
| Dónde, which is the basic translation of "Where" in Spanish. |
| estás, which is the verb estar "to be", conjugated for the 2nd person pronoun Tú which we have already studied. |
| And do you know what happens with “you”? |
| Try to remember. Yes, is omitted!! This is very common in Spanish. |
| So in Spanish, "Where" is translated as Dónde. |
| So for example, if you want to ask "Where do you live?" You will say ¿Dónde vives? |
| As in English, the interrogative word here is placed in the 1st position and then followed by the verb. |
| But be careful, because several variations of Dónde are possible in Spanish. For example, if you want to ask "Where do you come from?" you will use de dónde instead of just dónde. |
| So that full question in Spanish is ¿De dónde vienes? |
| The word Dónde also changes if you are asking about the destination. If you say, for example, ¿A dónde vas? |
| This literally means "Where are you going to?" This question formula A dónde is often used when asking about your final destination, for example, a train station. |
| When you want to ask about a route, you can also say ¿Por dónde?. |
| For example, you can often hear ¿Por dónde vas? This means “Where are you going through?” or “Which route are you going to take?” |
| The grammatical rule for De dónde, A dónde or Por dónde still applies – they all have to be followed by a verb. |
| ¿Dónde estás? - here the verb is estar, “to be” |
| ¿A dónde vas? here the verb is ir, “to go” |
| ¿Por dónde caminas? Here the verb is caminar, “to walk” |
| Before ending this lesson, let’s look back at all the ways to translate "Where" in Spanish. |
| -Dónde is the basic "Where" as in "Where do you live?" Dónde vives? |
| - De dónde refers to the origin or the starting point, as in "Where do you come from?" De dónde eres? |
| - A dónde refers to the destination or arrival point, as in "Where are you going to?" ¿A dónde vas? |
| - Por dónde refers to the itinerary, or the desired route, as in "Which route are you going to take?” ¿Por dónde vas? |
| Now it’s time for Lucia’s Insights. |
| Just like what happens with Qué, remember that Dónde has an accent only when is it used to ask a question. If you use donde to answer, write it without the accent. |
| In this lesson, we learned how to correctly use the Spanish word for "Where", Dónde, and also its different variations. |
| Now you can avoid getting lost! |
| In the next lesson we’ll learn more about asking questions, this time using "When" in Spanish. |
| I’ll be waiting for you in the next Español en 3 minutos. |
| Hasta la próxima! |
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