Breakdown of La farmacia está a un kilómetro de mi casa.
Questions & Answers about La farmacia está a un kilómetro de mi casa.
Why is it está and not es?
What does a mean in a un kilómetro?
Here a means something like at a distance of or away by.
So:
This is a very common Spanish pattern for distance:
English does not use at in the same way here, so this often feels unusual to learners.
Why is it un kilómetro and not uno kilómetro?
Because uno changes before a masculine singular noun.
- uno becomes un before a masculine singular noun
- una is used before a feminine singular noun
Since kilómetro is masculine, you say:
- un kilómetro
Compare:
- un libro
- un coche
- una casa
- una farmacia
So uno kilómetro is not correct.
Why is it de mi casa?
Why is there la before farmacia?
Because Spanish usually uses the definite article with specific nouns more often than English does.
- La farmacia = the pharmacy
If you are talking about a particular pharmacy, la is natural.
Also, farmacia is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine article:
- la farmacia
- una farmacia
You cannot say el farmacia because the noun is feminine.
Why is mi used without an article? Why not la mi casa?
In standard modern Spanish, possessives like mi, tu, su, nuestro normally replace the article.
So you say:
- mi casa
- tu coche
- su farmacia
Not:
- la mi casa
- el tu coche
So de mi casa is the normal form.
Why does está have an accent mark?
Why does kilómetro have an accent mark?
Because the stress falls on the second syllable:
- ki-LÓ-me-tro
Spanish spelling rules require a written accent here.
This is useful because stress in Spanish is very regular, and accent marks tell you when a word does not follow the default pattern.
Can I change the word order?
Could I also say La farmacia queda a un kilómetro de mi casa?
How would I ask this as a question?
How would I say a different distance?
You keep the same structure:
- La farmacia está a dos kilómetros de mi casa.
- La farmacia está a medio kilómetro de mi casa.
- La farmacia está a diez minutos de mi casa.
So the pattern is:
[place] + está + a + distance/time + de + [reference point]
This structure works with physical distance and also very often with travel time.
Is farmacia in Spain exactly the same as pharmacy in English?
Usually yes in this kind of sentence: farmacia is the place where you get medicines.
A small cultural note: in Spain, a farmacia is specifically a pharmacy, not a general convenience store or supermarket drugstore section. So the word is fairly precise.
In this sentence, though, you can simply understand it as pharmacy.
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