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Perdona, ¿hay un banco cerca?

Perdona, ¿hay un banco cerca?
Excuse me, is there a bank nearby?
From Lesson 30:Asking the way (cerca, a la derecha, todo recto)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Perdona, ¿hay un banco cerca?

Why is it perdona and not perdone?
Perdona is the informal way to say excuse me, used when addressing someone as tú (informal you). You would use this with people your own age or in a casual setting. If you want to be more formal and polite, for example with an older person or in a professional setting, you would use perdone (the usted form).
Why does the upside-down question mark come after perdona instead of at the very beginning of the sentence?
In Spanish, the opening question mark goes exactly where the actual question begins. Perdona is just an introductory word getting someone's attention, so the real question part of the sentence starts at hay.
Why do we use hay here instead of está for "is"?
Hay means "there is" or "there are". We use it to ask if something exists or is available, like asking if any bank exists nearby. You would use está (is) if you were asking for the location of a specific bank you already know about, like ¿Dónde está el banco? (Where is the bank?).
I sometimes see cerca de. Why isn't there a de in this sentence?
Cerca means "nearby" or "close". You only add de (of/to) when you are mentioning the specific thing it is close to in the same sentence. For example, cerca del restaurante (close to the restaurant). Since we are just saying "nearby" without saying what it is close to, we leave out the de.

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