¿Dónde queda la estación?

Here, queda means is located or is situated.

The base verb is quedar, which often means to remain, to stay, or to be located, depending on context. In location questions like this one, quedar is very commonly used in Spanish to ask where a place is.

So ¿Dónde queda la estación? is basically asking where the station is located.

Both quedar and estar can be used to ask where something is, but they are not always identical in feel.

• ¿Dónde queda la estación? = Where is the station located?
• ¿Dónde está la estación? = Where is the station?

In much of Latin America, quedar is very natural when asking for the location of a place, especially if you are asking for directions or trying to find somewhere. It can sound a little more like asking about its position on a map or in relation to other places.

So yes, ¿Dónde está la estación? is also correct, but ¿Dónde queda la estación? is especially common for places.

Because the subject is la estación, which is singular.

Spanish verbs change depending on the subject:

• yo quedo
• tú quedas
• él/ella/usted queda
• nosotros quedamos
• ellos/ellas/ustedes quedan

Since la estación is a singular thing, the verb is queda.

Dónde has a written accent because it is being used in a direct question.

Spanish question words usually take an accent when they introduce a question or exclamation:

• dónde = where
• qué = what
• cuándo = when
• cómo = how

Compare:

• ¿Dónde queda la estación? = direct question
• No sé donde queda la estación is often written No sé dónde queda la estación because it contains an indirect question.

So the accent helps identify it as a question word.

Spanish uses both an opening and a closing question mark:

• ¿ ... ?

So the correct punctuation is:

• ¿Dónde queda la estación?

The opening question mark tells you right away that a question is starting. This is standard in Spanish and should always be used in writing.

In Spanish, the most natural order here is:

• question word + verb + subject

So:

• Dónde
  • queda
    • la estación

That is why ¿Dónde queda la estación? sounds normal.

The version ¿Dónde la estación queda? sounds unnatural in standard Spanish.

Spanish often places the verb before the subject in questions, especially after question words like dónde, qué, cómo, and cuándo.

Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed.

In English, you say Where is it? or Where is the station? But in Spanish, the verb form often already tells you enough, and the noun itself is stated:

• queda already agrees with la estación
• la estación is the subject

So there is no need to add a separate word for it.

Spanish usually uses the definite article more often than English does.

So when referring to a specific station, Spanish naturally says:

• la estación = the station

Leaving out the article would usually sound incomplete here. In this sentence, the speaker is asking about a particular station that both people can identify from context.

Estación usually means station, but the exact kind depends on context.

It could mean things like:

• a train station
• a bus station
• a metro/subway station
• sometimes another type of station, depending on the situation

If the context is not clear, a Spanish speaker may understand it as the station relevant to the conversation. If you want to be more specific, you can say:

• la estación de tren = the train station
• la estación de autobuses = the bus station
• la estación de metro = the metro station

Yes, estación is feminine, which is why it uses la:

• la estación

Many nouns ending in -ción are feminine, for example:

• la estación
• la información
• la situación
• la canción

So this is a useful pattern to remember.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

DON-de KYE-da la es-ta-SYON

A few details:

• Dónde: the stress is on the first syllable: DON-de
• queda: the qu sounds like k, so KE-da or KYE-da depending on how you hear it
• estación: stress is on the last syllable: es-ta-SYON

In much of Latin America, this will sound approximately like:

DON-de KE-da la es-ta-SYON

Not in normal usage here.

Even though quedar can have other meanings in other contexts, in a sentence like ¿Dónde queda la estación?, with a place as the subject and dónde as the question word, the natural meaning is about location:

• Where is the station located?

Context makes that meaning clear.