Understand directions in Spanish at real speed.

Left, right and straight: the words to catch first.

Three words carry most of a directions answer. Learn these before anything else, because they decide the shape of the whole reply.

How to ask for directions in Spanish.

Two openers and two question shapes cover almost every situation on foot. Say the opener first: it gives the other person a moment to stop and look at you.

Perdón and Disculpe both work to open. Disculpe is the polite usted form; with a friend you would say disculpa. The polite form is the safe choice with a stranger whose help you need.

Watch two small things in the questions. First, a joins el to make al: a la estación but al centro. Second, questions open with ¿ as well as closing with ? — write both when you make notes, because the opening mark tells you at a glance that a question starts here.

A worked answer, split into chunks.

Here is an illustrative reply to ¿Dónde está la estación? Read it once at normal reading speed, then look at the chunk table underneath.

Look at the shape rather than the words. Each instruction opens with a verb in the polite usted form — siga, gire — and Spanish often drops the subject pronoun, so the first sound you hear is the action. The landmark usually arrives after en: en el semáforo, en la esquina, en la plaza. Catch en and the next noun, and you already know where to turn. Del in the last chunk is simply de + el.

The usted forms are not a style choice; they follow from the pronoun. The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas explains that usted is grammatically a third-person pronoun, so its verb goes in the third person — ¿Puede repetir? to a stranger, not ¿Puedes repetir?

Landmarks and distance words.

Answers are built from a small set of places and a few numbers. You do not need to say these from memory at first — you need to recognise them at speed.

Street words, landmarks and numbering vary by city and by speaker, so treat every example here as illustrative and follow the words the person actually uses.

Giving directions in Spanish back.

Someone will ask you, too — usually for a shop in your own building. You can answer with the same chunks, and you can also say honestly that you are new.

That last line is worth memorising early. It is polite, it is true for a while, and it ends the exchange without embarrassment.

Three tasks that train your ear.

Reading a dialogue is not the same as hearing one. These three tasks take about ten minutes in total and use the answer above. Do them in order.

If the answer still runs past you, use the rescue phrases rather than nodding: No entiendo. ¿Puede repetir más despacio, por favor? Both are on the free Conversation Rescue Card, and the guide to asking someone to repeat or slow down puts them in a full exchange.

Space the three tasks out — today, in two days, next week. The IES What Works Clearinghouse practice guide Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning recommends spacing learning over time and using quizzing to prompt retrieval; these are general study principles from research on learning and memory, not a method aimed at Spanish or a promise about your progress. When you want a second pass, reread the worked answer above out loud, then cover it and run the three tasks again from memory.

Is this just another app with a plan and an upsell?

A fair question, given how much free material turns out to be a waiting room for a subscription. Here is exactly what this page and the free plan are.

This page is a reading and speaking drill built around one exchange. There are no points, no streaks and no daily reminder. The free 7 Day Spanish Starter Plan is a real five-page workbook — a PDF and an editable Word file — and the whole plan is also readable on that page. Day 5 is exactly ¿Dónde está la estación? and ¿Dónde está el baño?, so it slots in with this article.

The download versions arrive through a short form (first name and email). After you sign up, we send you a short email; reply VERIFY and we email you the plan, then four emails on days 2, 4, 7 and 10 (three practice tips, then one about paid materials). Every email has an unsubscribe link, and there is no other marketing. The paid options — a toolkit, a cohort course and a monthly membership — are planned and marked as not yet open, with no checkout today. You can read the status and the planned prices on the pricing page. Nothing here is sold, and nothing starts automatically.

What this cannot do is stand in for speaking with a person. Treat it as the preparation that makes those first real exchanges less frightening, not as a replacement for them.

Cover the Spanish and recall it.

Close the tables above, then say or write the Spanish for each prompt. Check your answers afterwards, not during.

• I can ask where a place is, with an opener.
• I can tell left, right and straight apart when I hear them.
• I can repeat an instruction back to check it.

Use the phrases whenever you need them. This is practice, not a proficiency test.

Common questions.