Differences between donde, a donde, a donde, donde, a donde and a donde The word donde is very important in the Spanish language. It is an adverb that expresses place. Now, why does it sometimes have an accent and other times not? And why does it sometimes have the preposition a in it
the word where It is very important in the Spanish language. It is a adverb that expresses place.
Now, why does it sometimes have an accent and other times not? And why does it sometimes have the preposition to in the same word and others separately?
Surely you have asked yourself these questions more than once. Well today you are in luck. All these doubts will be resolved in this article.
Let's explain to you how the adverb works where in all possible situations.
It's going to be a very advanced grammar article, intended for students of Spanish with a intermediate – high level.
Would you like to delve deeper into Spanish grammar at a top level? Then you need to come to our spanish courses in Hispania, Spanish school.
In these classes you will learn everything you need to be able to communicate in Spanish in real life. All in a sociable and happy environment.
Where are you going to find a better place to learn Spanish?
Surely nowhere. talking about where, we said that we were going to talk about this adverb, right?
Well come on, let's hit it!
First let's explain to you where, where and where to with accent
When the adverbs where, where or where to they have an accent, they are about interrogative or exclamatory adverbs.
That is, they are used to ask or show emphasis.
Let's look at the meaning of each word separately.
Generally, the adverb where with accentmeansin what place.
Used to ask or exclaimwhere the action is done.
Examples:
Areinterrogative and exclamatory sentencesaredirect. That is, they have question marks and exclamation marks.
But alsoThere are interrogative and exclamatory sentences.indirect. These are made in the middle of an affirmative sentence and do not carry the signs.
However, adverbs maintain their accent because they are still considered interrogative and exclamatory.
Examples:
So muchwhere to aswhere toare thetwo correctand they are used for the same thing. Both ask or exclaim the place to which the action is directed.(to what place).
They always go withverbs of motionwho carry theprepositionto.
The most common verb isgonna, but there are many more: get on, head to, drive to, carry to, travel to, move to, etc.
These verbs are also considereddirection or destination verbs, and they always carry theprepositionto.
Examples:
As you see, in the examples we have used where to and where indistinctly. They work just as well.
Of course, be careful and don't use the verb be with the preposition to. It's a common mistake people make, but be never takes to to talk about places:
We can also do indirect questions with where to and where:
Examples:
These prayers They do not have question marks because they are not made with the tone of a question, but they are also considered as interrogative sentences.
Now we are going to explain to you when they are used where, to where or where without accent. The three are relative adverbs of place.
These relative adverbs introduce subordinate clauses.
Subordinate clauses serve to give descriptions or new actions that are related to the main clause.
Let's see all the situations in which we can use where as a relative adverb.
where like relative adverb of place can be used in many ways. We list them all:
The antecedent would be the place of main sentenceabout which we are going to give new information in the relative clause.
Examples:
The blue sentence is the relative.
What is the background of the above examples? The places that are marked in the main sentences: a restaurant, a neighborhood and a school.
If you look at the previous examples, the first sentence has the subordinate verb in the subjunctive. However, in the other two, the verb is in the indicative.
Because? It is important that you know this.
When the subject of the main sentence know the background, the verb of the relative clause goes in indicative.
In the examples, Sara lives in a neighborhood she knows and Carmen studies at a school she knows. Therefore in indicative.
On the other hand, if the subject does not know the background, the verb of the relative clause must go in subjunctive.
In the first example, Roberto is looking for a restaurant, therefore it means that he does not know it yet. That is why the verb of the relative clause is put in the subjunctive: serve.
Is it clear? It is very important that you understand this!
Another interesting thing to keep in mind is that, when we have an antecedent, the relative adverb where also can be replaced for the following:
The sentences from before with these adverbs would be like this:
We can also have relative clauses with the adverb where no precedent.
We put it right after the verb of the main sentence.
Examples:
In the prayers we have where no precedent, we could replace this adverb with in the place whereand:
These two structures they don't have a express antecedent and they usually go with verbs have and have.
Examples:
To where / where are used with verbs of motion or destination that have the preposition to.
Remember that some verbs that express direction with to Typical are: go to, come to, go up to, move to, move to, leave for, go to, etc.
As with the interrogative and exclamatory adverb, the two forms They are totally correct and they can be used in the same way.
where and to where They can go in movement sentences that have an antecedent:
Likewise, they can also go no precedent:
These sentences and the previous ones could be replaced by to the place that and they would mean the same thing.
Furthermore, you should know that due to the circumstances of the verbs, the word where can carry other prepositions.
In these cases, we do not put the preposition to. We cannot put two prepositions together.
It is possible to say to where, where, from where…but never where!
where is incorrect, instead we simply say where.
This use of where with prepositions applies in the same way when we use where as an interrogative adverb.
Now you know how to use correctly where, where, where, where, where and where. Bravo! 👏🏻
As a recap, we are going to highlight again some of the most frequent doubts regarding this topic. This way it will be very clear to you.
Remember that the two forms with the preposition toThey are completely correct, whether it is an interrogative or exclamatory adverb or a subordinate clause adverb.
Use both without problems!
The preposition to It is only used when it goes with movement verbs that need it.
Examples:
Remember that the interrogative adverbs and exclamatory They always have an accent to mark the place about which the question is asked or emphasis is placed.
Has it been helpful to you? It is a somewhat complicated topic, especially because of the subordinate clauses.
So take it easy and don't get frustrated.
These are difficult aspects of Spanish grammar and ideally you will take classes with expert teachers, as in Hispania, Spanish school.
Do you have any more questions? If so, don't hesitate to write it in the comments.
See you!
Article written by Carlos Martinez for Hispania, Spanish school.
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