Breakdown of En recepción nos dijeron que el aeropuerto está solo a veinte minutos.
Questions & Answers about En recepción nos dijeron que el aeropuerto está solo a veinte minutos.
Spanish often drops the article with certain places and institutions when they’re thought of in a general / functional way:
- en recepción – at (the) front desk / reception
- en clase – in class
- en casa – at home
- en prisión – in prison
En recepción here means “at the reception desk (of the hotel, etc.)” as a general location.
You can say En la recepción, but it sounds a bit more specific or physical, like the actual room or area, rather than “the people at reception” as a service. In this sentence, En recepción is the most natural choice.
In Peninsular Spanish, recepción in this context means:
- the reception desk or front desk of a hotel, office, clinic, etc.
- and by extension, the staff working there.
So En recepción nos dijeron… is really “At reception they told us…”, where recepción stands for “the people at the reception desk.”
It does not mean a party / social event (“wedding reception”) here; for that, Spanish would normally specify: un cóctel, una recepción oficial, etc.
Nos is the indirect object pronoun for “to us”.
- dijeron = “they said / they told”
- nos dijeron = “they told us”
In Spanish, pronouns like me, te, le, nos, os, les usually go before a conjugated verb:
- nos dijeron
- me contaron
- le explicaron
You can also use a full phrase a nosotros for emphasis or clarity:
- En recepción nos dijeron a nosotros que… (very emphatic)
- En recepción nos dijeron que… (normal)
But dijeron a nosotros by itself (without nos) sounds incomplete or odd; you’d normally keep the pronoun nos.
Spanish usually omits subject pronouns when the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.
- dijeron clearly shows 3rd person plural (“they said”)
- Context (En recepción) makes it obvious that “they” = the people at reception.
So Ellos en recepción nos dijeron… would sound redundant or unnatural. You’d only add ellos if you really wanted to contrast or emphasize who it was:
- Ellos, en recepción, nos dijeron una cosa, pero en información nos dijeron otra.
Both are possible; the choice is about aspect and discourse, not grammar:
- nos dijeron – preterite: a completed past event in a narrative sequence.
- nos han dicho – present perfect: a past event with present relevance, often “recent” in feeling, especially in Spain.
In a story about what happened step by step (we arrived, they told us X, then we left), Spaniards naturally use the preterite:
- Ayer llegamos al hotel. En recepción nos dijeron que el aeropuerto está solo a veinte minutos.
If you’re focusing more on the current relevance (e.g. explaining now why you’re not worried about the time), a Spaniard might choose:
- En recepción nos han dicho que el aeropuerto está solo a veinte minutos.
In your sentence as an isolated narrative fact, nos dijeron is the most neutral.
In reported speech, Spanish does not always “shift” the tense the way English often does.
We often keep the same tense the original speaker used, as long as the statement is still true at the reference time:
- Direct: El aeropuerto está solo a veinte minutos.
- Reported: Nos dijeron que el aeropuerto está solo a veinte minutos.
This suggests the airport is (still) 20 minutes away from where you are (the hotel, etc.).
You can use estaba if you’re placing the situation firmly in the past or suggesting it might no longer apply:
- Nos dijeron que el aeropuerto estaba solo a veinte minutos.
→ More “back in that situation, at that time, it was 20 minutes away.”
In everyday speech about something that is still true, Spaniards very often keep está.
Yes, que el aeropuerto estaba solo a veinte minutos is grammatically correct.
Subtle difference:
- está – feels more “timeless” or still valid now with respect to the base point (e.g. that hotel location).
- estaba – firmly situates the information in the past; it can sound like “that was the info at that time,” with no guarantee it applies now.
In practice, both might be used interchangeably in quick conversation, but está slightly reinforces the idea that this distance is currently valid from that place.
You cannot omit que here. In Spanish, when introducing an entire clause as the object of decir (“say that… / tell that…”), you must use que:
- Nos dijeron que el aeropuerto está solo a veinte minutos. ✅
- Nos dijeron el aeropuerto está solo a veinte minutos. ❌ (wrong)
Que functions roughly like “that” in English in this kind of reported speech:
- They told us *that the airport is only twenty minutes away.*
Here, el aeropuerto is the subject of the verb está:
- el aeropuerto = the airport (subject)
- está = is (located)
- a veinte minutos = at a distance of twenty minutes (time-distance)
So the structure is “The airport is (located) (at) twenty minutes (away).”
We only use al aeropuerto (a + el) when it’s the object of a verb of motion:
- Vamos al aeropuerto. – We are going to the airport.
- Cogimos un taxi al aeropuerto. – We took a taxi to the airport.
In your sentence, we are not going to the airport yet; we’re just stating where it is, so el aeropuerto está… as subject is correct.
Here, solo is an adverb meaning “only / just”:
- está solo a veinte minutos = “it is only twenty minutes away.”
About the forms:
- solo (without accent) is now the standard spelling both for:
- the adjective “alone” (e.g. estoy solo)
- the adverb “only” (e.g. solo tengo cinco euros)
- solamente = “only / just” as well; a bit more formal/explicit, but very similar in meaning.
- sólo (with an accent) used to be recommended for the adverb “only”, but the RAE now says the accent is generally unnecessary; it’s considered optional only in rare ambiguity cases.
So in Spain today, solo a veinte minutos is fully standard. You could also say solamente a veinte minutos, which sounds slightly more emphatic or formal, but the meaning is the same.
A in a veinte minutos expresses distance in time, measured from a point (usually understood from context: the hotel, this place, etc.):
- El aeropuerto está a veinte minutos (de aquí).
→ “The airport is twenty minutes away (from here).”
Some patterns:
- a 5 kilómetros, a media hora, a dos paradas (de metro), etc.
En veinte minutos is different: it usually expresses duration until completion from now:
- Llegaremos al aeropuerto en veinte minutos.
→ “We’ll arrive at the airport in twenty minutes.”
So:
- está a veinte minutos = its distance is 20 minutes away.
- llegamos en veinte minutos = it will take us 20 minutes to get there (from now).
Yes, both are possible:
- está solo a veinte minutos
- está a solo veinte minutos
Meaning is the same: “is only twenty minutes away.”
Subtle style difference:
- solo a veinte minutos is probably the more common everyday order.
- a solo veinte minutos slightly emphasizes “only twenty minutes” as a block, but it’s mainly stylistic.
Both sound natural in Spain.
Both can describe location in terms of time-distance:
- El aeropuerto está a veinte minutos.
- El aeropuerto queda a veinte minutos.
Differences:
- estar is the most basic verb for location: neutral and universal.
- quedar (in this sense) is very common in Spain in spoken language. It often has a nuance of “is (situated) at a distance of”, sometimes with a slightly more informal or conversational tone.
In practice, in Spain you’ll hear:
- El aeropuerto está a veinte minutos en coche.
- El aeropuerto queda a veinte minutos en coche.
Both are fine; estar is more neutral and universal, quedar is very typical in European Spanish for distances.