Annotated Dialogue: Asking for Directions

This original, rights-cleared street dialogue begins with a visitor looking for a pharmacy and ends only after the route has been repeated back. That final check is important: real directions are jointly constructed. The person giving directions names landmarks, the visitor tests an interpretation, and both speakers keep correcting the shared mental map.

The key contrast between locating a known place and asking whether one exists is developed on the existential haver-hi page.

The exchange uses polite vostè because the speakers are unknown adults. Its third-person imperatives—segueixi, giri, passi, continuï—belong to neutral courteous conversation, not only to highly formal speech. An informal tu version appears later.

Complete dialogue

Visitant: Perdoni, sap on hi ha una farmàcia per aquí?

Veïna: Sí. Segueixi aquest carrer fins al semàfor i giri a l'esquerra.

Visitant: A l'esquerra, després del semàfor?

Veïna: Exacte. Després passi per davant del mercat i continuï recte fins a la plaça.

Visitant: He de travessar la plaça?

Veïna: No, no cal. Quan arribi a la plaça, quedi's a la vorera de l'esquerra. La farmàcia és al costat d'una fleca.

Visitant: És gaire lluny, des d'aquí?

Veïna: No, són cinc minuts a peu. La veurà a mà dreta, davant d'una parada d'autobús.

Visitant: A veure si ho he entès: recte fins al semàfor, giro a l'esquerra, passo per davant del mercat i continuo fins a la plaça. No la travesso.

Veïna: Això mateix. La farmàcia és just abans de la fleca.

Visitant: Moltes gràcies!

Veïna: De res.

Idiomatic English translation

Visitor: Excuse me, do you know if there's a pharmacy around here?

Local resident: Yes. Follow this street to the traffic lights and turn left.

Visitor: To the left, after the traffic lights?

Local resident: Exactly. Then go past the market and continue straight on to the square.

Visitor: Do I have to cross the square?

Local resident: No, there's no need. When you reach the square, stay on the pavement on the left. The pharmacy is next to a bakery.

Visitor: Is it very far from here?

Local resident: No, it's a five-minute walk. You'll see it on your right, opposite a bus stop.

Visitor: Let me see if I've got this: straight to the traffic lights, I turn left, go past the market, and continue to the square. I don't cross it.

Local resident: That's right. The pharmacy is just before the bakery.

Visitor: Thank you very much!

Local resident: You're welcome.

Numbered annotations

1. Perdoni, sap on hi ha...?

Perdoni is the polite vostè imperative of perdonar. It gets the stranger's attention without assuming familiarity. The embedded question begins with on “where,” but it keeps statement-like order: on hi ha una farmàcia, not an English-style inversion.

Hi ha presents an entity as existing or available in a place. The indefinite article una is natural because the visitor wants any pharmacy, not one already identified. Per aquí widens the search to the surrounding area.

Compare a known place:

Use on hi ha una farmàcia? to ask whether and where one exists; use on és la farmàcia? when both speakers can identify the pharmacy in question.

2. Segueixi... i giri...

The local resident gives two polite affirmative imperatives. Both are third-person forms because vostè takes third-person grammar: segueixi aquest carrer and giri a l'esquerra.

Fins al combines fins a “as far as/up to” with el: fins a + el → fins al. The turn is a l'esquerra or a la dreta. English says “turn left” without a preposition, so omitting a is a common transfer error.

3. The first confirmation check

The visitor repeats only the uncertain segment: A l'esquerra, després del semàfor? No verb is needed because the previous instruction supplies giri. Rising intonation turns the fragment into a confirmation request.

This is more natural than pretending complete understanding and more efficient than asking for the whole route again. Abans de and després de locate an action relative to a landmark; before a definite article, de + el contracts: després del semàfor.

4. Passing a landmark and continuing straight

Passar per davant de describes movement past the front of something. It does not mean entering the market. Continuï carries a diaeresis because the written ï keeps the vowels in separate syllables in this form. Recte functions adverbially in this fixed directional use.

The destination phrase is fins a la plaça because no contraction occurs with feminine la. Contrast fins al semàfor.

5. He de...? / No cal

The visitor asks whether an action is necessary with haver de + infinitive:

No cal is impersonal. It does not require a subject pronoun or a translation equivalent to English “you.” A fuller answer is No cal que la travessi, with subjunctive travessi and la referring to the square.

6. Location as a sequence of relations

The future-oriented time clause quan arribi uses present subjunctive because the arrival has not happened yet. At A1, learn the phrase as a useful route pattern. Quedi's is the affirmative vostè imperative of the pronominal verb quedar-se; the weak pronoun follows the affirmative command.

Once the pharmacy has been introduced, la farmàcia is definite. The bakery is new information, so it remains indefinite: d'una fleca. Al costat de expresses adjacency; it does not tell the listener which side until another phrase does.

7. Distance and travel time

Gaire is common in questions and negative environments. És gaire lluny? asks “is it very far?” without assuming that it is. The answer gives journey time with són:

English uses singular “it is,” but Catalan agrees the copular verb with plural cinc minuts: són. A peu means “on foot.” The initial point takes des de, which elides before aquí: des d'aquí.

8. Tracking the pharmacy with la

The direct-object pronoun la prevents repetition of la farmàcia. It comes before the finite verb veurà. A mà dreta gives the traveler's right-hand side; davant de places the pharmacy opposite or in front of the bus stop, depending on the local geometry and viewpoint. Landmarks work best when more than one relation converges.

9. Repeating the route in the speaker's own grammar

The visitor changes the resident's vostè commands into first-person present forms: giro, passo, continuo, no la travesso. That shift proves who will perform the route.

Ho in ho he entès refers to the entire set of instructions. La in no la travesso refers specifically to la plaça. English uses “it” for both; Catalan chooses the pronoun according to what is resumed.

Read-aloud version

Give commands a calm falling contour and checks a rising one:

Stress the landmarks more strongly than the articles. Keep l'esquerra together; the apostrophe does not create a pause.

Informal and regional alternatives

With tu, the core commands are segueix, gira, passa, continua:

Do not start with Perdoni and then switch without reason to gira. A stranger may invite tu, but the change should reflect an interaction, not accidental agreement.

Central forms are the production baseline. (regional: Valencian) standard directions may use gire, continue and quan arribe for vostè, reflecting Valencian subjunctive and imperative morphology. Vocabulary also varies: speakers may prefer cantó or cantonada for a street corner in different places. Use local forms consistently rather than mixing paradigms to sound broadly “Catalan.”

Alternative phrasings

• Sap on hi ha una farmàcia? — asks a person who may know.
• Em podria dir on hi ha una farmàcia? — more explicitly mitigated.
• Tiri tot recte — common spoken instruction, neutral/informal depending on address.
• Continuï recte — portable standard instruction.
• És a tocar — “it's very close,” informal-neutral.
• És a cinc minuts a peu — exact and easy to verify.

Comprehension check

1. Does the visitor cross the square? No; the visitor stays on the left pavement.
2. What two businesses are adjacent? The pharmacy and a bakery.
3. What is opposite the pharmacy? A bus stop.
4. Why does the visitor say giro rather than giri when repeating the route? The visitor is now describing their own actions.

Transformation practice

1. Make Giri a l'esquerra informal: Gira a l'esquerra.
2. Replace “left” with “right”: Giri a la dreta.
3. Ask about a known station: On és l'estació?
4. Ask whether any station exists nearby: Sap on hi ha una estació per aquí?
5. Resume la plaça in No travesso la plaça: No la travesso.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

Ask for any available place with on hi ha...? and locate a known place with on és...? In polite directions, keep vostè imperatives consistent: segueixi, giri, passi, continuï. Build the route from place relations—fins al, a l'esquerra, per davant de, al costat de, davant de—and track known landmarks with weak pronouns such as la. Most importantly, confirm the route in first-person forms: repeating giro, passo, continuo turns instructions into a plan you can actually follow.