How to Use the Words Here and There In Spanish

Broadly speaking, in English  something or someone can be in one of two places: here or there. In Spanish, there are three relative locations or places of position. Those locations are aquà ­, roughly the equivalent of here; ahà ­, roughly the equivalent of there when speaking of an object or action that is close to the person being spoken to; and allà ­, roughly the equivalent of there or over there when speaking of an object that is distant from both the speaker and the person being spoken to. Grammatically, all of these words are known as  adverbs of place or position. These words can also substitute as pronouns in a sentence. In Spanish, all these forms have an accent mark over the final vowel. Regional Differences With Here, There and Over There In some parts of Latin America, you may hear  acà ¡ for here and  allà ¡Ã‚  for over there, instead of, or in addition to, aquà ­, allà ­, and ahà ­. You may also find some subtle variations in how these terms are used in different regions.   A memorization technique is to remember these adverbs in order from  closest to farthest: aquà ­ (acà ¡), ahà ­, and allà ­ (allà ¡). In most situations,  acà ¡ is synonymous with  aquà ­,  and you will find that some countries use  acà ¡Ã‚  more frequently, while some Spanish speakers exclusively use  aquà ­. Differentiating Between Use Cases Although allà ­ and ahà ­ can sound similar in regions where the double-l,  ll, which sounds like a y sound, is softened and often translated the same in English, do not to confuse the two words. As examples, if you ask a native Spanish speaker,  ¿Quà © pasa ahà ­?, which means,  Whats happening there? then the person will likely look in his or her vicinity. But  ¿Quà © pasa allà ­?,  translates to, Whats happening over there? and will have the person looking in the distance. Place Adverb Spanish Sentence English Translation aqu Vente aqu para comer. Come here and eat. aqu La gente aqu es muy pacfica. The people here are very peaceful. aqu Haz clic aqu.haber Click here. ac Ms ac! More over this way! or Closer! ac As no se hacen las cosas ac. Thats not how we do things here. ah Te puedes sentar ah. You can seat yourself there. ah Como siempre ah. I always eat there. all Hay alguien all? Is someone there? all El hombre que nunca estuvo all (movie title) The Man Who Wasnt There all All viene el heladero. There comes the ice cream man (in the distance). all Aquellos pases all en la Africa. Those countries over there in Africa. all La torta est all. The cake is over there. Demonstrative Adjectives Corresponding With Place Adverbs Place adverbs can roughly correspond to demonstrative adjectives and pronouns. The adverbs aquà ­, ahà ­, and allà ­ correspond to the demonstratives este, ese, and aquel, respectively. There are multiple forms depending on gender and number. Place Adverb Demonstrative Adjectives aqu, ac este (this), esta (this), ste (this one), estos (these), estas (these) ah ese (that), esa (that), se (that one), esos (those), esas (those) all, all aquel (that over there), aqul (that one over there), aquella (that over there), aquellos (those over there), aquellas (those over there). Place Adverbs That Substitute as Pronouns As in English, place adverbs can occasionally be used as pronouns. Here and there stand in as place nouns. A couple examples include:  Los dulces de aquà ­ son muy caros, which means, The candy from here is very expensive, and Desde allà ­ puede ver el lago, which means,  From there you can see the lake. Tricky Translations When translating, the meaning of a Spanish sentence, beware getting tripped up by the existential use of the verb haber, the conjugated form hay, meaning there is or there are. It is easy to confuse allà ­ meaning, there, with the existential use of haber, such as using hay to mean there is or there are. For example, Hay dos libros and Dos libros està ¡n allà ­ can both be translated as, There are two books. The two sentences in Spanish do not mean the same thing. Hay dos libros means two books exist, while dos libros està ¡n allà ­ means, two books are in that location. Nonlocational Usage for Adverbs of Place These adverbs occasionally used in time references, meaning something like at this time or at that time  Ã¢â‚¬â€ or, informally, now and then.  Two examples:  De aquà ­ en adelante, todo es desconocido. (From now going ahead, everything is unknown.) Hasta allà ­ todo estaba bien. (Until then, everything was fine.) Key Takeaways The three main adverbs of location are aquà ­ (here), ahà ­ (there), and allà ­ (there, but farther away).In some areas, acà ¡ (here) and allà ¡ (there) are used additionally or instead.When translating from English  to Spanish, do not confuse there as a location with there as a term of existence.