Describing your Town in Spanish: Adjectives and Directions

¿Cómo es tu ciudad? In order to answer this question, you need to know a little about places in your town, some adjectives and the basics about directions. In this lesson, we will review the vocabulary for places in town in Spanish and ways to ask and give directions too. More importantly, we will teach you how to use common adjectives to describe a city in Spanish. We have included some conversations with people talking about their towns, particularly about the places and things that make their town special. Let’s start…

Introductory video: Places in town in Spanish and descriptions

We will begin by watching a short video showing some common places in town in Spanish through several pictures and explaining how to use adjectives to describe cities or towns in Spanish. This video includes 18 different names of places in Spanish, the adjectives that you can also use for describing your town in Spanish and ask what a place is like. At the end of the video, you will find a town description in Spanish using everything that is explained in the video. Make sure to stick until the end of the video as it will certainly help you understand the rest of the lesson.

Talking about directions of common places in town in Spanish

Before learning how to describe your town in Spanish, we will review some vocabulary and how to give directions of common places in town in Spanish. If you already know this, then just skip this part and go to the next part of the lesson. It is common to use the verbs QUEDAR, ESTAR and HABER to give directions following the structure 

Place + ESTAR/QUEDAR (conjugated)+ preposition of place + place of reference

HABER will used in its form HAY meaning “there is/there are” in Spanish. A simple direction would look like any of these three sentences: “La farmacia está junto al hospital/La farmacia queda junto al hospital/Hay una farmacia junto al hospital”. For the distance between places, you can use the word CUADRA just the way BLOCK is used in English. Moreover, you can also use other units of measurement like “metros, varas, kilómetros, millas, etc.”. All of this is covered with more details in our previous lesson. Listen to these two conversations and identify some of the places in town in Spanish presented in the video plus the different ways to say directions.

Example No. 1

• Vicente: Alika ¿Dónde queda el mercado?
• Alika: El mercado queda detrás del hotel Arcos
• Vicente: Quiero comprar algunas frutas ¿Crees que encuentre?
• Alika: Yo creo que sí. También hay un supermercado a tres cuadras de la escuela Libertad por si necesitas comprar algo más
• Vicente: Gracias Alika. Me voy entonces…

Example No. 2

• Vicente: ¿Quieres ir a cenar a un restaurante?
• Alika: Si claro ¿A cuál vamos?
• Vicente: Hay un restaurante muy bueno a 4 cuadras al norte del museo. Dicen que la comida es deliciosa
• Alika: Aja… creo que también la cafetería Gema queda cerca del museo.
• Vicente: Mi plan es ir al restaurante a cenar, luego pasar por el museo y quedarnos un rato en el parque platicando ¿Te parece?
• Alika: Me parece un buen plan… Vámonos entonces.

Describing your town in Spanish: SER + common adjectives

As it was mentioned in the video, information questions such as “¿Cómo es tu pueblo?” and “¿Cómo es tu ciudad?” can be used to ask what’s a town like in Spanish. Another way to ask is using the question “¿Cómo es el lugar donde vives?” (what’s the place where you live like?). Sometimes, people may also ask “¿Cuáles son los lugares famosos de tu ciudad?” and that is why know the names of some places in town in Spanish is really important. Normally, people will also describe places in Spanish too and give directions at the same time, e.g. “Este parque es bonito. Queda frente a este museo“.

For the purpose of describing your town in Spanish, you can use verbs like SER (to be), LUCIR (look like) and TENER (to have). You could use many different adjectives to describe your town in Spanish and places around it. However, some of the most common adjectives for places are: BONITO (beautiful), GRANDE (big), PEQUEÑO (small), FAMOSO (famous), MODERNO (modern), ANTIGUO (ancient), PINTORESCO (Picturesque), POPULAR (popular), LLENO DE TRADICIONES (full of traditions), ACOGEDOR (cozy), LLENO DE GENTE (crowded), INTERESANTE (interesting). Make sure to use the right form of the verb SER when talking about places and describing your town in Spanish, just like in the picture below.

Read and listen to a conversation between two friends describing cities in Spanish and their most significant places as well. Check the translation if necessary and find how they used these phrases and adjectives.

Example No. 3

• Alika: Vicente ¿Cómo es tu ciudad?
• Vicente: Vaya… que te digo… Es una ciudad pequeña pero muy bonita y segura. La ciudad es muy pintoresca, moderna y está llena de gente amigable. ¿Ya has ido a mi ciudad?
• Alika: No he ido aún, pero he escuchado que es un lugar agradable y famoso por su comida.
• Vicente: Es cierto. Hay muchos restaurantes famosos en la ciudad, además de un museo histórico y muchos otros lugares turísticos. ¿Cómo es el lugar donde vives tú Alika?
• Alika: Es una ciudad grande, así que hay muchos lugares incluyendo varias estaciones de buses, gasolineras, tiendas y librerías… La oficina de correos es famosa porque fue la primera del país.
• Vicente: Vaya ¿Es una ciudad segura?
• Alika: Si es segura, pero debes ser cuidadoso siempre. La estación de policía de la ciudad queda cerca del hospital.
• Vicente: Bien, creo que voy a visitar tu ciudad y tú tienes que visitar la mía
• Alika: ¡Trato hecho!

Listening Activity No. 1: Finding places and describing my city in Spanish

Key expressions in the conversation:

• Mira means “Look…”
• Si giramos a la derecha… means “If we turn right
• Será facil acostumbrarte a… means “It will be easy to get used to…”

Listening Activity No.2: Completing a city description in Spanish

Writing practice: Describing your town in Spanish

Take a look at the examples provided in the lesson and use these examples to write a paragraph describing your town in Spanish. Talk about the most important places around town, what makes them special and how to get to those places. We hope you found this lesson very useful. Thanks for joining us! Leave us a comment if you have a doubt or suggestions. ¡Hasta pronto!

Related Spanish Worksheets:

• Places in the City in Spanish – PDF Worksheet
• Adjectives to Describe Places in Spanish – PDF Worksheet
• Giving Directions in Spanish – PDF Worksheet
• Asking for Directions in Spanish – PDF Worksheet
• Giving directions in Spanish – Dialogue worksheet
• Travel Postcards in Spanish – PDF Reading Worksheet
• Our Travel Experiences in Spanish – PDF Reading Worksheet
• A Historic Neighborhood in Spanish – PDF Reading Worksheet