Learn place-in-town nouns with the article
Learn each place-in-town noun with its article (tested across all papers): el ayuntamiento (town hall), la biblioteca, el mercado, la plaza, la iglesia, el parque, la estación. Describe a town with ser + an agreeing adjective: grande, pequeño/a, moderno/a, antiguo/a, tranquilo/a, ruidoso/a. Mind the noun's gender: el pueblo, el barrio (masc.) vs la ciudad (fem.) — the adjective agrees with the subject.
Give directions with the imperative
Directions use the informal singular imperative (tú): sigue todo recto (go straight on), gira a la izquierda/derecha, cruza la plaza, toma la primera calle. Location uses fixed prepositional phrases: al lado de (next to), enfrente de (opposite), cerca de, lejos de. Ask with ¿Dónde está...? — a dónde answer needs its preposition: en el centro, not bare centro.
Drawn from real examiner reports.
Adjective not agreeing with ciudad/pueblo
Town-description adjectives must agree in gender and number — ciudad is feminine, pueblo and barrio masculine:
Adjective-noun and article-noun agreement failures are a top Writing common-error every sitting (w23 P41 Q2 Task 3; s23 P41 Task 1).
Using tiene or es/son where hay is needed
Hay ("there is/are") is impersonal and invariable — use it to say what a town has, and don't swap it for tiene or es/son:
"Avoid using *tiene* where *hay* is required and vice versa, and *es/son* where *hay* is required" — Q3 improvement list, every sitting.
Confusing dónde with cuándo or cómo
Direction and location questions are built on dónde (where), easily confused with cuándo (when) or cómo (how):
Question words *cuándo, cómo, quién, dónde* reliably trip candidates in role plays, flagged every sitting (s22; w22; s23 role-play notes).
derecha vs recto are not synonyms
Derecha and recto sit near direction vocabulary but are unrelated, not synonyms:
Using ser instead of estar for location
Location uses estar, never ser — where something is is an estar fact:
*ser/estar* confusion is on the Writing common-errors list every sitting; *es/está* with a location marked under Accuracy.
Thinking directions use the present tense
A false belief: giving directions uses the present tense. But an instruction to another person takes the imperative:
Role-play tasks needing a specific instruction form are a repeated weakness when candidates default to a more familiar tense (every sitting).
Build a directions answer in three steps
For the directions role-play: (1) check the question — ¿Dónde está...? needs a place, ¿Cómo llego a...? a route. (2) give the route as imperatives (sigue, gira, cruza), not the present. (3) anchor each with a preposition: al lado de la iglesia.
Describe a town: ser, hay, then compare
To describe your town: open with ser for size/character (mi ciudad es moderna), list facilities with hay (hay un mercado y dos parques), then compare with the countryside using más/menos... que (el campo es más tranquilo que la ciudad).
A location answer must carry its preposition
Answering ¿dónde? means including the preposition, not just the place noun: está en el centro, al lado de la iglesia, cerca del parque. A bare centro reads as an incomplete location answer — the discipline the Reading paper applies.
This topic covers describing your town or area, places in town, asking for and giving directions, and comparing town and country.
Places in town:
| Spanish | English | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| el ayuntamiento | town hall | la biblioteca | library |
| el mercado | market | la plaza | square |
| la iglesia | church | el castillo | castle |
| el parque | park | el puente | bridge |
| la estación de tren | train station | la piscina | swimming pool |
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