Learn how to ask where something is
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In today's lesson, we'll cover another extremely important phrase, "Where is the bathroom?" |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In Spanish, "Where is the bathroom?" is ¿Dónde están los servicios? |
| ¿Dónde están los servicios? |
| Let's break it down by syllable: ¿Dón-de es-tán los ser-vi-cios? |
| And now, let's hear it again, ¿Dónde están los servicios? |
| Let's take a look at the components. |
| The first word, dónde, means “where.” |
| Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time. |
| dón-de |
| dónde |
| This is followed by están, which in Spanish is “they are.” |
| This is a conjugated form of the verb estar, which means “to be.” |
| están |
| es-tán |
| están |
| So, to recap here, we have - Dónde están. Literally, this means “where are they.” |
| Remember that in Spanish, the subject can be implied by the conjugated form of the verb and that’s why it’s not mandatory to say the subject. |
| Let’s take a look at the next word, los, which is the article “the” for the masculine plural. |
| los |
| Finally, we find servicios, which means "bathrooms." |
| Let's break it down by syllable: ser-vi-cios |
| And now, let’s it here it once again, servicios. |
| So, altogether, we have, ¿Dónde están los servicios? |
| Literally, this means "Where are the bathrooms?" |
| A shorter phrase commonly used to ask for the bathroom is ¿El baño por favor? which literally means "The bathroom, please?" |
| ¿El baño por favor? |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: ¿El ba-ño por fa-vor? |
| One more time, ¿El baño por favor? |
| El baño is a casual way to refer to "the bathroom." |
| This is followed by the phrase, por favor "please." |
| Therefore, this is a straight, forward, quick, and better way to ask where the restrooms are located. |
| Now, when you finally get to the bathroom, there may be one hurdle. In some instances, only the Spanish words are written in the doors. What to do? What to do? Well, you can stop by the website and find the words for men and women there. Find them inside the PDF or if you have an iPod, click the center button and you can find them there, if you are a premium subscriber. |
| In Spanish, the word for “men” is hombres, while the word for “women” is mujeres. |
| There are several places typically in gas stations where bathrooms are allowed and you need to ask for the key first. So, if you attempt to enter the bathroom and find it locked, you should ask the person on duty for the key with the phrase - ¿Me puede dar la llave del baño? which literally means “To me you can give the key of the bathroom?” and is translated as "Can you give me the bathroom key? |
| ¿Me puede dar la llave del baño? |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: ¿Me pue-de dar la lla-ve del ba-ño? |
| Once again, ¿Me puede dar la llave del baño? |
Outro |
|---|
| Okay, to close out today’s lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so buena suerte, that means “good luck” in Spanish. |
| Okay, here we go! |
| "Where is the toilet?" - ¿Dónde están los servicios? |
| ¿Dónde están los servicios? |
| ¿Dónde están los servicios? |
| "The bathroom, please?" - ¿El baño por favor? |
| ¿El baño por favor? |
| ¿El baño por favor? |
| "Can you give me the bathroom key?" - ¿Me puede dar la llave del baño? |
| ¿Me puede dar la llave del baño? |
| ¿Me puede dar la llave del baño? |
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