Grammar ~20 min of the core left

Ask where things are

After this lesson you can

I can ask where the place I need is and understand the answer.

Start the lesson Core 18–20 min · steps: 6 · optional: +2

Declared core time. Two of the core blocks carry no figure at all, so the real lesson is longer than this sum.

Grammar

4 min

A question about a place is made with the verb be, and its word order is fixed:

Where is the station? you ask about one place
Where are the shops? you ask about more than one place
Is there a bank near here? you ask if there is one not far away
Yes, there is. It's next to the post office. yes — and where it is

Excuse me is how you start a question to someone you don't know. Without it the question sounds rude. Sorry from lesson 1 is for "I didn't hear"; Excuse me is for "I want to speak to you".

the with places that a town has only one of: the station, the post office, the airport, the centre. This is the same rule as in lesson 14 — there is only one such thing in the situation, and both speakers know which one.

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Common learner errors

written for your language
1

Word order in the question

✗ Where the bank is?

✗ Where the bank?

✓ Where is the bank?

In many languages a question has the same word order as a statement (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Hindi), so learners leave the verb at the end. In others — Arabic, Indonesian, Bengali — "where is the bank?" has no verb at all, so learners drop is.

2

Excuse me or Sorry

✗ Sorry, where is the park? (to a stranger in the street) → ✓ Excuse me, where is the park? In French (pardon), German (Entschuldigung) and Spanish (perdón) one word works both to say sorry and to start talking to someone, so learners use Sorry for both. Said to a stranger, Sorry sounds like an apology for doing something wrong. To start talking to someone, say Excuse me.

3

The article with a place

✗ Where is station?

✓ Where is the station?

Many languages have no a/an/the at all (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Turkish, Polish), so learners leave out the.

Pronunciation

3 min

Two kinds of questions — two different intonations.

type example voice
a yes/no question Is there a bank near here? up ↗
a question with a question word (where, what, when) Where is the station? down ↘

In a question with a question word the voice goes down at the end. The harder one is the yes/no question: in English the voice goes up right to the very end of the sentence. And don't make your voice go up in a question with a question word: it then sounds surprised, or as if you don't believe the person.

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Text

3 min

Excuse me, where is the station?

It's next to the park. It isn't far — ten minutes on foot.

Is there a bank near here?

Yes, there is. There is a bank opposite the post office.

Thank you very much.

Reading aloud

Exercises

8–10 min

1. Word order.

  1. [ is / where / the station / ? ]
  2. [ a bank / is / near here / there / ? ]
  3. [ are / where / the shops / ? ]
Show the answers
Where is the station? Is there a bank near here? Where are the shops?

2. Gap fill.

  1. Where the post office?
  2. Where the shops?
  3. there a café near here?
Show the answers
is, are, Is.

3. Error correction.

  1. Where the bank is?
  2. Where is station?
  3. Sorry, where is the park? (to a stranger in the street)
Show the answers
Where is the bank? / Where is the station? / Excuse me, where is the park?

4. Matching.

  1. opposite
  2. near
  3. far from
  4. between
Show the answers
`opposite` — on the other side of the street; `near` — not far from; `far from` — a long way from; `between` — in the middle of two things.
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Summary

Covered

  • Where is / Where are
  • Is there…?
  • Excuse me
  • the with a place that a town has only one of
  • the two intonations of questions

Next — lesson 22: how to give directions.

End of the core

The lesson counts as done once the exercises are done. Everything after this is optional.

Lesson 22

optional

Vocabulary for your deck

13 words
  • station /ˈsteɪʃn/ a place where trains or buses stop
  • post office /ˈpəʊst ɒfɪs/ a place where you send letters
  • bank /bæŋk/ a place where people keep their money
  • park /pɑːk/ a big green place in a town where people walk
  • centre /ˈsentə/ the middle part of a town
  • airport /ˈeəpɔːt/ a place where planes arrive and leave
  • far /fɑː/ a long way away
  • opposite /ˈɒpəzɪt/ on the other side, facing
  • corner /ˈkɔːnə/ the place where two streets or two walls meet
  • minute /ˈmɪnɪt/ sixty seconds
  • excuse me /ɪkˈskjuːz miː/ what you say to start talking to someone you don't know
  • on foot /ɒn ˈfʊt/ walking
  • very much /ˈveri mʌtʃ/ a lot (as in "thank you very much")

Writing

A dialogue of four lines: you ask the way to two places.

Example

— Excuse me, where is the station? — It's next to the park. — Is there a café near here? — Yes, opposite the bank.

Checklist

The draft is saved on this device
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Practise this lesson in the other sections

Dictationbased on this lesson Write down what you hear. The check shows every word that differs, and how. Write the dictation Reading aloudbased on this lesson Read the lesson text aloud — speech recognition highlights the words it did not catch. Read the text aloud Reading and listeningA1–C1 Texts at every level with comprehension questions; the transcript opens after you answer. Try it

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