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Esperamos fuera de la oficina.

Esperamos fuera de la oficina.
We wait outside the office.
From Lesson 90:Complex prepositions of place (encima de, debajo de...)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Esperamos fuera de la oficina.

Why is there a de after fuera? Can't I just say fuera la oficina?
In Spanish, many words that describe location need de (of) to connect them to the place you are talking about. Just like you need de in debajo de (under) or al lado de (next to), you need it to say fuera de (outside of).
I thought afuera meant "outside." Why does this sentence use fuera instead?
Afuera is usually used when you don't name the specific place, like if you just say vamos afuera (let's go outside). When you specifically name the place you are outside of, the standard phrase is fuera de. (Note: In casual Latin American Spanish, you might also hear afuera de, but fuera de is the standard rule).
Doesn't esperamos also mean "we hope"?
Yes! The verb esperar is a great multi-purpose word. It can mean "to wait", "to hope", or "to expect". You just have to use the context to figure out the meaning. Since they are physically standing outside an office, "waiting" is the only meaning that makes sense here.
Is esperamos present tense ("we wait") or past tense ("we waited")?
It could be either! For regular -ar verbs like esperar, the nosotros (we) form is exactly the same in both the present tense and the simple past tense. Without extra clues like ayer (yesterday), you usually assume it's the present tense, just like in this translation.

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