Breakdown of El turista nos pregunta la dirección.
la dirección
the address
nos
to us
el turista
tourist
preguntar
to ask
Questions & Answers about El turista nos pregunta la dirección.
What is the role of nos in this sentence?
nos is an indirect object pronoun meaning "to us." Because preguntar is a verb of communication, the tourist is directing their words to us. In Spanish, these pronouns usually go right before the conjugated verb, so the sentence structure literally reads as "The tourist to us asks the address."
The English translation says "asks for". Why don't we use pedir here?
This is a very common mix-up! Use pedir when you are asking someone to hand you a physical object or do you a favor (like asking for a menu or asking for a glass of water). Use preguntar when you are asking a question to get information. Since the tourist wants information (the address), we use preguntar. Notice we also don't translate the English word "for" — the Spanish is simply pregunta la dirección (asks the address).
Why does turista end in "a" if the article is el?
Does dirección mean "address" or "direction"?