El banco está a la derecha de la estación.

The bank is to the right of the station.

Breakdown of El banco está a la derecha de la estación.

• estar: to be
• la estación: the station
• el banco: the bank
• a la derecha de: to the right of

Questions & Answers about El banco está a la derecha de la estación.

What does banco mean here, and can it also mean bench?

In this sentence, banco means bank (the place with money).

Spanish banco has two common meanings:

1. Bank – a financial institution.
2. Bench – something you sit on, usually a long seat.

How do you tell which one it is?

• From context. If you’re describing locations in a city, and you also mention things like a station, a supermarket, etc., banco will almost always mean bank.
• If people are talking about a park, a plaza, or somewhere to sit, banco often means bench.

The Spanish word is the same; you interpret it from the context.

Why is it está and not es in this sentence?

Spanish uses:

• ser (forms like es) for identity, permanent characteristics, time, origin, etc.
• estar (forms like está) for location, temporary conditions, emotions, etc.

For location of things and places, Spanish almost always uses estar, not ser:

• El banco está a la derecha de la estación.
  The bank is (is located) to the right of the station.

Compare:

• Madrid está en España. – Madrid is in Spain.
• El libro está en la mesa. – The book is on the table.

So for “is located,” think estar → está.

Why do we use a in a la derecha? In English we say “on the right” or “to the right.”

In this structure, Spanish uses the preposition a to talk about a direction or position relative to something:

• a la derecha (de …) = to the right (of …)
• a la izquierda (de …) = to the left (of …)

It does not translate directly as “at” here, even though a often means “to/at.”
Think of a la derecha de X as one fixed phrase meaning to the right of X.

Some patterns:

• a la derecha de la estación – to the right of the station
• a la izquierda de la casa – to the left of the house
• a la derecha del banco – to the right of the bank

You would not use en here (en la derecha) for this meaning.

Why do we say a la derecha de la estación and not something like a la derecha la estación?

In Spanish, to say to the right of [something], you need the preposition de:

• a la derecha de la estación – to the right of the station

The structure is:

• a la derecha de + [thing]

If you omit de, it becomes ungrammatical:

• ❌ a la derecha la estación – incorrect
• ✅ a la derecha de la estación – correct

Some more examples:

• a la derecha de la casa – to the right of the house
• a la derecha de la puerta – to the right of the door
• a la derecha del parque – to the right of the park

Why is it de la estación and not del estación?

Del is a contraction of de + el:

• de + el → del

You only use del when the following noun is masculine singular and uses el:

• de + el banco → del banco – of the bank
• de + el parque → del parque – of the park

But estación is feminine, so it uses la, not el:

• de + la estación → de la estación – of the station

Because the article is la, there is no contraction; it stays as two words: de la.

How do we know that estación is feminine?

You mainly know from vocabulary practice, but there is a strong pattern here:

• Many nouns ending in -ción (and -sión) are feminine:
  • la estación – the station
  • la nación – the nation
  • la información – the information
  • la decisión – the decision
  • la televisión – the television

So:

• la estación, una estación, esta estación, toda la estación etc.

When you learn a new noun, it helps to learn it with the article:

• la estación (not just estación)
  so your brain links it with the feminine gender from the start.

Why do está and estación have accent marks?

They have accents for stress and, in the case of está, also to distinguish it from a similar word.

1. Está

   • Without an accent, esta means this (feminine), as in esta casa (this house).
   • With an accent, está is the verb estar, third person singular present: he/she/it is, you (usted) are.
   • The accent indicates both the correct stress (es-TÁ) and the meaning (the verb form, not the demonstrative).

2. Estación

   • The word ends in -n, and Spanish words ending in a vowel, n, or s are normally stressed on the second-to-last syllable.
   • But estación is stressed on the last syllable: es-ta-CIÓN.
   • The accent on ó shows this irregular stress: estación (not Ésta-cion).

So the accents tell you where to put the stress and sometimes help distinguish between meanings.

Can we change the word order and say A la derecha de la estación está el banco?

Yes. Both orders are correct:

• El banco está a la derecha de la estación.
• A la derecha de la estación está el banco.

The default, most neutral order is the first one: subject + verb + rest.

Putting A la derecha de la estación at the beginning:

• Sounds a bit more descriptive or literary in many contexts.
• Can be used for emphasis: you’re emphasizing the location first, then revealing what is there.

In everyday speech, you will hear the original order more often, but the alternative is perfectly natural and correct.

In English we often drop “the”. Can Spanish drop el in el banco or la in la estación here?

In this kind of sentence, Spanish normally keeps the definite article:

• ✅ El banco está a la derecha de la estación.

You generally cannot drop the article the way English sometimes does:

• ❌ Banco está a la derecha de estación. – incorrect

Spanish uses definite articles much more than English:

• Me duele la cabeza. – My head hurts. (literally: The head hurts me.)
• Voy a la escuela. – I go to school.

There are cases where articles are omitted (e.g. with some professions, some proper names, some set expressions), but with ordinary, specific places like el banco, la estación in a sentence like this, you keep the article.

Can we use queda instead of está to talk about location?

Yes, in many parts of Latin America, queda is commonly used to talk about where something is located:

• El banco queda a la derecha de la estación.

Here queda comes from quedar and means something like:

• is located, is situated, ends up being

Differences in feel:

• está is the most neutral way to say “is (located).”
• queda can sound a bit more like you’re explaining directions or where to find something, especially in spoken language.

Both are correct in this sentence:

• El banco está a la derecha de la estación.
• El banco queda a la derecha de la estación.

What’s the difference between a la derecha and a la derecha de la estación?

• a la derecha on its own just means on/to the right (in general), often relative to the speaker or a shared reference point.
• a la derecha de la estación is more specific: to the right of the station.

Examples:

• El banco está a la derecha.
  The listener must infer: to the right of what? Maybe to your right, or to the right on a map, etc.

• El banco está a la derecha de la estación.
  Now it’s clear: relative to the station.

So:

• a la derecha – to the right (context decides of what)
• a la derecha de + algo – to the right of something explicitly mentioned

How would you say “to the right of it” instead of repeating la estación?

You can replace la estación with a pronoun-based phrase de ella (of it / of her), if the feminine noun is already clear from context:

• El banco está a la derecha de ella.
  The bank is to the right of it/her.

If the reference is masculine, you’d use de él:

• El banco está a la derecha de él. – to the right of it/him (for a masculine noun like el parque).

However, in practice, Spanish speakers often just repeat the noun if it’s not too repetitive:

• El banco está a la derecha de la estación.

Using de ella / de él works, but sounds more natural when the noun was mentioned very recently or is very obvious from context.