Learn Spanish (Spain): Ahora el perro está aquí.

aquí means "here," referring to a location close to the person speaking. In this lesson, you will also learn allí, which means "there" (further away). Because the dog is near the speaker, we use aquí.

Why do we use está instead of es for the word "is"?

We use está (from the verb estar) because we are talking about a location. In Spanish, you always use estar to say where people, animals, or things are located, even if that location changes.

Both está and aquí have written accent marks. Are they important to learn?

Yes! Accent marks tell you which part of the word to stress when speaking. For está, the stress is on the last syllable, which also prevents you from confusing it with esta (the word for "this"). For aquí, the stress is strongly on the final "i".

Could I put the word ahora at the end of the sentence?

Absolutely. Spanish word order is quite flexible. You could easily say El perro está aquí ahora. Putting ahora at the very beginning just gives a little extra emphasis to the fact that the dog is here right now.