CHAPTER 4
Places and Things
Lugares y cosas

All Around Town

Find your way through the maze to learn the Spanish words for these familiar places! Start at the picture described in question number one. Find your way to the rest of the pictures. Write both the English and Spanish words on the lines provided.

1. Where do you borrow books?

2. Where do you study?

3 Where do you play?

4. Where do you mail a letter?

5. Where do you shop for food?

1. ______________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________

Shopping and Errands—Compras y mandados

There are all kinds of different stores and other places you might need to go to get your shopping and other errands done. Shopping for food can require a lot of different stops. Here are some places you might go to get the groceries you need:

English	Spanish
bakery	la panadería
butcher	la carnicería
candy store	la confitería
fruit stand	la frutería
grocery store	la tienda de comestibles
market	el mercado
supermarket	el supermercado

Here are some sentences you might use when talking about shopping for food:

English	Spanish
I'm going to the bakery.	Voy a la panadería.
Let's go to the candy store.	Vamos a la confitería.

There are also lots of other places you might need to visit. Here are some examples:

English	Spanish
bank	el banco
barber	la barbería
beauty shop	la peluquería
church	la iglesia
clothing store	la ropería
department store	los grandes almacenes, las tiendas por departamentos

¡CUIDADO!

Mistake to Avoid

What’s the difference between a grocery store, a market, and a supermarket? Well, a supermarket is a huge store that sells all kinds of fresh, boxed, and canned food, plus has special sections like a deli counter and bakery. A grocery store is a small, local store that sells food and things, and a market usually sells food outside, like a stand at a farmer’s market.

Diversión—Fun Stuff

Do you know where the post office is in your town? The library? The school? Draw a map of your town and label in Spanish all the different buildings. If your town doesn’t have all of the places on the list, you can make some up!

English	Spanish
dentist	el dentista
doctor	el médico
dry cleaner	la tintorería
eye doctor	el oftalmólogo
hardware store	la ferretería
laundromat	la lavandería
library	la biblioteca
pharmacy	la farmacia
post office	la oficina de correos
stationery store	la papelería

Transportation—Transporte

Now that you know where you’re going, you just need to figure out how to get there! This is where transporation comes in. Transportation includes all the vehicles that take you places, like cars, buses, and bicycles.

With all of these different methods of transportation, you’re going to use a new verb: ir (to go). The conjugations you might need for this verb are yo voy (I go), tú vas (you go), and nosotros vamos (we go). After the verb, you’re going to use en, which means “in” or “by.” For example:

English	Spanish
I'm going by car.	Yo voy en coche
Are you going by train?	¿Vas en tren?
We're going in a plane.	Nosotros vamos en avión.

For walking, though, you don’t use en. You use a instead:

English	Spanish
I'm walking.	Voy a pie.

Here are some common modes of transportation you might use to get where you need to go:

English	Spanish
bicycle	la bicicleta
boat	el barco
bus	el autobús
car	el coche
ferry	el transbordador
helicopter	el helicóptero
jet ski	la moto acuática
motorbike	la moto
motorboat	la lancha a motor
motorcycle	la motocicleta
plane	el avión
RV	la caravana pequeña
sailboat	el barco de vela
scooter	el scooter, el ciclomotor
skateboard	el monopatín
skates	los patines
subway	el metro
taxi	el taxi
train	el tren
tricycle	el triciclo
truck	el camión
van	la camioneta
walking	a pie

Vacation—Vacaciones

Where do you like to go on vacation? The beach? The mountains? Around the world? Here is some Spanish vocabulary to help you find your way there—and back home.

¿Cómo?—
Say What?

In a discussion about transportation, you might also need to use some other words. Perhaps you have to buy a bus or train ticket before you can board. Here are some words that will help you: station—la estación, ticket—el billete, to buy—comprar, to pay—pagar.

Consejo
IMPORTANT TIP

If you’re going to another country, there are a few extra words you’ll need to know: customs—la aduana; immigration—la inmigración; passport—el pasaporte; visa—un visado/una visa.

English	Spanish
Where are you going?	¿Adónde vas?
I'm going...	Voy...
to an amusement park	a un parque de atracciones
to my grandparents' house	a la casa de mis abuelos
to the beach	a la playa
to the city	a la ciudad
to the mountains	a las montañas
to the rainforest	al bosque tropical
overseas	al extranjero

Here are a couple of examples:

English	Spanish
I'm going to the beach.	Voy a la playa.
I'm going overseas.	Voy al extranjero.

When you travel long distances, you sometimes have to fly in an airplane. Here’s some vocabulary to use at the airport:

English	Spanish
airport	el aeropuerto
Arrivals	Llegadas
baggage	el equipaje
baggage claim	el reclamo de equipaje
boarding pass	la tarjeta de embarque
carry-on luggage	el equipaje de mano
checked luggage	el equipaje registrado
check-in desk	el mostrador de registro
Departures	Salidas
economy (coach) class	la clase económica
first class	la primera clase
flight	un vuelo

English	Spanish
gate	una puerta
layover	una escala
one-way ticket	un billete sencillo
plane ticket	un billete de avión
round-trip ticket	un billete de ida y vuelta
security check	el control de seguridad
shuttle	un servicio de autobús
terminal	la terminal

Here are some verbs to use at the airport:

English	Spanish
to board	embarcar
to buy a ticket	comprar un billete
to land	aterrizar
to make a reservation	hacer una reservación
to take off	despegar

Once you’ve arrived at your destination, you can help your parents or other family members by knowing the following helpful words and phrases:

English	Spanish
Where is the...?	¿Dónde está...?
bank	el banco
bathroom	el baño
church	la iglesia
currency exchange	el cambio de moneda
hospital	el hospital
hotel	el hotel
movie theater	el cine
museum	el museo
park	el parque
police station	la comisaría

Gotta Go!

You have just traveled a long way, and you need to go—quick! Use the directions to cross out words in the grid. Read the leftover words from top to bottom and left to right. That’s the polite way to ask directions to the bathroom!

Cross out: números • familia • colores

Can you add the correct punctuation?
Remember to think upside-down!

¡CUIDADO!

Mistake to Avoid

The Spanish words for “east” and “west” are kind of similar, so be sure to pronounce them correctly. Este (east) is pronounced ES teh, and oeste (west) is pronounced oh ES teh—don’t forget to say that o at the beginning, which is pronounced like “oh”!

English	Spanish
pool	la piscina
post office	la oficina de correos
restaurant	el restaurante
school	la escuela
theater	el teatro

Now pretend that you’re at your vacation destination and you need to ask where some different places are. Remember the words and phrases you just learned and complete some sentences asking where different places are. For example, if you want to know where the post office is, you would ask ¿Dónde está la oficina de correos? Try it out:

¿Dónde está?	________________________________
¿Dónde está?	________________________________
¿Dónde está?	________________________________
¿Dónde está?	________________________________
¿Dónde está?	________________________________

When you and your family are trying to get somewhere, you’ll also need to talk about directions and locations. For instance, you might need to go through the door on the left, visit the counter in front of the escalator, or travel west on the highway. Here are some words that will help you talk about direction and location:

English	Spanish
It is...	Está...
To the left	a la izquierda
To the right	a la derecha
straight ahead	todo seguido
next to	junto a
in front of	enfrente de
in back of	detrás de
up	arriba
down	abajo
near	cerca
far	lejos
north	norte
south	sur
east	este
west	oeste

Colors—Colores

Now it’s time to talk about colors! Knowing how to say all the colors in Spanish will help you describe the things you see. Perhaps there is a blue mailbox down the street or a red bird in the tree. Once you know all these words, you can describe almost anything!

English	Spanish
red	rojo
purple	violeta
blue	azul
green	verde
yellow	amarillo
orange	anaranjado
black	negro
white	blanco
gray	gris
brown	marrón
pink	rosado

Diversión — Fun Stuff

Write the Spanish words for all the colors on small stickers and use them to label your crayons, pens, markers, and paints. This will help you remember these new words!

Gramática —
Additional Grammar

To describe a color as “light” or “dark,” you need to know the words claro (light) and oscuro (dark). For example: light gray—gris claro; light green—verde claro; dark red—rojo oscuro; dark purple—violeta oscuro.

One important difference in Spanish is that adjectives like colors come after the noun, instead of before it, like in English. In the following examples, notice how the color comes before the noun in English but after it in Spanish:

English	Spanish
My mom has a blue car.	Mi mamá tiene un coche blanco.
I have a purple bike.	Tengo una bicicleta violeta.

Do you see how the word violeta was used to describe bicicleta? This is because bicicleta is a feminine word (it ends in a). Remember to change the ending to a if the word you’re describing is feminine.

Now use the Spanish words for colors to describe some of the different things you have. These are all words you’ve already learned, so you just have to remember what they mean and then add a color in the blank space. Remember to change the ending on the color word to match the gender of the word your describing, if necessary.

una bicicleta	________________________________
una mochila	________________________________
un suéter	________________________________
una camiseta	________________________________

Now that you know how to talk about colors in Spanish, go tell your family what your favorite color is. Start with Mi color favorito es and then add the color. So, if your favorite color is red, just say Mi color favorito es el rojo. It’s easy!

Shapes—Formas

Now you know how to describe things by their color, but what about their shape? Circles, ovals, and triangles are common shapes. Here are some shape words to help you describe what you see around you:

English	Spanish
arch	un arco
circle	un círculo
cone	un cono
crescent	una media luna
cube	un cubo
curve	una curva
cylinder	un cilindro
diamond	un diamante
heart	un corazón
hexagon	un hexágono
line	una línea
octagon	un octágono
oval	un óvalo
pentagon	un pentágono
pyramid	una pirámide
rectangle	un rectángulo
sphere	una esfera
square	un cuadrado
star	una estrella
triangle	un triángulo

Sizes—Tamaños

While color and shape are good ways to describe things, you can also talk about size. Here are some good size words to know:

¿Cómo?—
Say What?

Did you know that there are different categories of shapes? Shapes like circles and squares are two-dimensional, bidimensional, which means they’re flat. Shapes like spheres and cubes are three-dimensional (3-D), tridimensional, so you can actually hold them in your hand and see all their sides.

Diversión—Fun Stuff

Don’t forget the best shape of all! The Spanish word for “rainbow” is arco iris. Draw a rainbow and label each stripe with the Spanish word for that color. ROY G. BIV is a trick to help you remember the colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo (dark blue), and violet.

Gramática —
Additional Grammar

To say that something is more ____, or that it’s ____-er than something else, you use the word más (more) in Spanish. For example, to say “The dog is bigger than the cat,” say El perro es más grande que el gato. To say, “I want a smaller book,” say, Quiero un libro más pequeño.

Consejo
IMPORTANT TIP

There are other quantity words that are less specific but just as useful: mucho (a lot), muchísimo (a whole lot), un poquito (a little), una miaja (a tiny bit), más (more), and menos (less).

English	Spanish
huge	enorme
large	grande
long	largo
medium	mediano
narrow	estrecho
short	corto
small	pequeño
tiny	pequeñito
wide	ancho

In Spanish, not only are there different words for weights and distances, but there is also a different system of measurement. Americans use the “English system,” which includes inches, feet, miles, pounds, gallons, etc. Most of the rest of the world uses the “metric system.”

To measure distance, the metric system uses “meters.” One meter (un metro) is a little more than three feet. One kilometer (a thousand meters) is just over half a mile. A centimeter is one hundredth of a meter; 2½ centimeters equal one inch.

For weight, the metric system uses “grams.” Thirty-two grams (gramos) equal about an ounce. A kilogram (1,000 grams) equals 2.2 pounds.

The metric system measures volume with “liters.” One liter (un litro) is a bit more than a quart.