PHRASES:
| ¿Cuánto cuesta una carrera del centro al Museo de Arte Moderno? | How much does it cost for a ride from the center to the Modern Art Museum? |
| ¿Cuánto me cobra por llevarme hasta la calle Sexta? | How much do you charge to take me to Sixth Street? |
| En esta ciudad se puede regatear con el taxista. | In this city you can barter with the taxi driver. |
| Sale muy caro, ¿no podría hacerme una rebaja? | That is very expensive, couldn’t you lower it for me? |
| El tráfico es un problema tan grave como la contaminación. | Traffic is as bad a problem as pollution. |
| En las grandes ciudades es más rápido tomar el metro que el taxi. | In large cities it is faster to take the subway than the taxi. |
| ¿A cuántas cuadras está la próxima estación del metro? | How many blocks is the next subway station? |
| Es peor pasarse un semáforo en rojo que llegar tarde a una cita. | It is worse to go through a red light than to arrive at an appointment late. |
| La luz ámbar es una señal preventiva. | The yellow light is a sign for caution. |
| Antes de subirte al taxi debes ponerte de acuerdo en el precio de la carrera. | Before getting in a taxi you should agree on the price of the ride. |
VOCABULARY:
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GRAMMAR:
Verbs of location
In order to tell a taxi driver where you want to go you will need to know how to use the following verbs:
Estar – to be. It is very useful to use estar with prepositions to explain where some place is. Let’s imagine that you’re explaining where a certain movie theater is to a taxi driver:
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Está al lado del monumento de la revolución. | It’s next to the monument to the revolution. |
| Está en frente del terminal de autobuses. | It’s in front of the bus terminal. | |
| Está justo detrás de la parada de metro Tacubaya. | It’s right behind the subway stop “Tacubaya.” | |
| Está en la misma calle que la embajada de los EU. | It’s on the same street as the U.S. embassy. | |
| Está por la iglesia de la conchita. | It’s over by the church of the little shells. |
Ser – to be. Although estar is the verb you will usually use to refer to places, ser is used in some cases. For example, you use the verb ser for events.
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La boda será en la iglesia de San Andrés. | The wedding will be at Saint Andrew’s church. |
| El concierto fue en el auditorio nacional. | The concert was at the national auditorium. |
Quedar – This is a very useful verb in explaining where a place is. It literally means “to stay, to remain”. But when used to refer to location, it has the same basic meaning as the verb estar.
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¿Por dónde queda el estadio de fútbol? | Where is the soccer stadium? |
| Queda muy cerca del museo de bellas artes. | It’s very close to the museum of fine arts. | |
| No queda muy lejos de aquí. | It’s not very far from here. |
Encontrarse – This is another common verb for explaining the location of a place. It literally means “to be found,” but it is used in the same way as estar or quedar.
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¿En dónde se encuentra la catedral? | Where is the cathedral? |
| Se encuentra en la plaza central. | It is located in the main plaza. |
Ubicar – This verb is often used in its past participle form preceded by the verb estar. Its meaning is “to be located.”
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Tu casa está bien ubicada. | Your house is well located. |
| La casa está ubicada a tres cuadras del centro en un callejón tranquilo. | The house is located three blocks from downtown on a quiet side street. |
