Donde o Adonde?

[millie]

Sorry I don't have an international keyboard. I am, obviously, attempting to teach myself baby Spanish through tapes. I simply do not understand when to use the second instead of the first word. Can any of you clarify this for me?

[vetteforron]

adonde vas? donde estas?

[Donkey]

Wait till you get to frente, enfrente, bajo, abajo, debajo, etc. Then it really gets fun.

[millie]

Gee, Donkey. That wasn't at all helpful.

[millie]

Necessito aprender.

[norma2002]

adonde vas? donde estas?

"adonde vas" - where are you going

"donde estas" - where are you

Does that help?

[millie]

Well...Does Adonde refer to future events? Is that it?

[Scott]

Adonde implies some sort of movement is occurring. If you could replace the "where" with "to where", in your mind, and it still seems to make sense, then there is probably a good chance that you should be using "adonde" or "a donde". It can be used in any tense.

"adonde vas" - (to) where are you going (literally: to where you go)

"a donde fuiste?" - (to) where did you go?

"donde estas" - where are you -- "to where are you" doesn't make sense here.

I hope this helps. I didn't read this in a book or anything, its just something "I know".

[millie]

Thanks for the help. I'll try that.

Now another question or two: I listen to these tapes intently. It seems that their speakers sometimes pronounce the double-l words in two different ways. This confuses me, particularly when they sometimes pronounce the SAME word two different ways in different parts of the tape.

For instance, "llama" always seems to take the "y" sound, whereas "llamar" fluctuates between an initial "J" sound and the "Y" sound. Which should it be?

I know these are nit-picky things. But I'd really like to get it right, if possible.

[Nancy in CO]

I think it's "a donde" instead of "adonde"--two words instead of one. So "A donde vas?" and "Donde esta?" (How come I can't get the accent mark on "esta"?) I am still struggling with some of the other problems--ser vs. estar, por vs. para, and the many, many versions of este, eso, ese, etc. Someday I hope to be able to speak Spanish without sounding like a complete moron.

And about the double L sound--a Mexican friend tried to tell me that the "J" sound and the double L were the same. I think he was pulling my leg. I suspect that the "J" sound is more common on the street than in the classroom. Of course, if you really want to be confused you could go to Ecuador where they don't use the double L sound at all.

N.

[Barbara]

the verb ir - to go is followed by a when you tell where you are going. Voy a la escuela, tu vas a la tienda, vamos al mercado. Therefore, when you ask a question using a form of ir you must still use the a, but it is placed in front of the question word (I forget what that part of speech is called)

Barbara

[julibaga]

Son igualmente aceptables las grafías "adónde" y "a dónde".

En el español actual debe evitarse el uso arcaico de "adónde", "a dónde" sin valor de movimiento

[esperanza]

Precisamente.

[jbellies]

I really should look at a dictionary before making a fool of myself, but:

adonde = whither (not a frequent word in the last 150 years)

donde = where

And if you're confused about eso esta etc, here is a rule that my

teacher Ana Maria Quiroz, passed along:

"This and these both have tees"

So este, esta is "this", and ese, eso, esa is "that".

[Scott]

And about the double L sound--a Mexican friend tried to tell me that the "J" sound and the double L were the same. I think he was pulling my leg. I suspect that the "J" sound is more common on the street than in the classroom.

The sound is interchangable. It is mostly a regional accent. It isn't slangy to use the J sound. I would think that most native speakers would tend to use one or the other, but one sound is not better than the other. I can assure you that nobody will misunderstand what you are saying because you chose one way over the other.

[Scott]

A search for:

adonde "a donde"

on Google.ca returns various explanations, mostly in Spanish.

Here is a direct translation of the following explanation:

Adonde, a donde, adónde, a dónde

Adonde o a donde. They are relative adverbs:

- adonde is always used when the antecedent appears in the frase:

Éste es el pueblo adonde nos dirigimos. (this is the town where we were heading for)

- a donde, written separately, is used when it doesn't take an antecedent:

Fuimos a donde nos dijeron. (we went where they told us, the "this is the town" part is missing)

Adónde, a dónde. These are interrogative or exclamative adverbs and they can be written either way:

¿Adónde vas? / ¿A dónde vas?

¡Adónde hemos llegado! / ¡A dónde hemos llegado!

These should all be reserved for verbs about movement.

...

And you thought you only had to learn the difference between donde and adonde!!