💬 Communication ★ Core Say it yourself

Asking for and giving directions

Ask where a place is and follow or give a short route.

Use polite questions for help and memorise common direction commands as chunks. At A1, intelligibility matters more than explaining the imperative system.

Patterns to reuse
Perdone, ¿dónde está…? / ¿Cómo se va a…?
Excuse me, where is…? / How do you get to…?
pehr-DOH-neh, DOHN-deh ehs-TAH
Sigue todo recto.
Continue straight ahead.
SEE-geh TOH-doh RREHK-toh
Gira a la derecha/izquierda.
Turn right/left.
HEE-rah ah lah deh-REH-chah
Toma la primera/segunda calle.
Take the first/second street.
TOH-mah lah pree-MEH-rah
Watch out for
¿Cómo voy la estación?
¿Cómo se va a la estación?

Use a before the destination; the impersonal chunk is common.

Gira en la derecha.
Gira a la derecha.

Direction uses a la derecha.

Perdone, ¿cómo se va a la estación?
Excuse me, how do you get to the station?
pehr-DOH-neh, KOH-moh seh bah ah lah ehs-tah-THYOHN
Sigue todo recto y gira a la izquierda.
Go straight on and turn left.
SEE-geh TOH-doh RREHK-toh ee HEE-rah ah lah eeth-KYEHR-dah
Toma la segunda calle a la derecha.
Take the second street on the right.
TOH-mah lah seh-GOON-dah KAH-yeh ah lah deh-REH-chah
Está a unos cinco minutos a pie.
It is about five minutes on foot.
ehs-TAH ah OO-nohs THEEN-koh mee-NOO-tohs ah pyeh
Route chunks
cruza la callepasa el semáforosigue hasta…está al final de la calleestá en la esquinaestá a cinco minutos
Transport
a pieen autobúsen metroen coche
Politeness
Perdone…Gracias.De nada.
Try it out loud
map
Give a three-step route between two points.
What to include

Use sigue, gira and toma/cruza.

roleplay
Ask a stranger for the station and confirm one detail.
What to include

Use Perdone and ¿Entonces…?

listening
Follow spoken directions on a map.
What to include

Mark each turn and landmark.

Happy with all of this?
  • I can ask for directions politely.
  • I can give and follow a route of three or four steps.

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