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5.4: Asking For and Giving Directions

  • Page ID
    51369
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    There are many ways to ask for directions in English.

    1. Ask for a specific place

    • Excuse me, where is the bank? - The bank is in front of the hotel.
    • Excuse me, do you know where the mall is? - The mall is across from the park.

    The prepositions below are used to describe where places are in a city.

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    2. Ask for the address of a place

    • Excuse me, can you tell me the address of the bank? - The bank is located at 1234 S.W. 12th St.
    • Excuse me, could you give me the address of the hospital? - The hospital is located at 176 N. 23rd Ave.

    Addresses in English often have shortened words:

    • Ave. = Avenue St. = Street Blvd.= Boulevard Rd. = Road
    • N. = North S. = South E. = East W. = West

    Addresses use both ordinal and cardinal numbers:

    • Ordinal = first, second, third Cardinal= one, two, three

    Watch this video for specific information on how to say numbers in English:


    This page titled 5.4: Asking For and Giving Directions is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Della Jean Abrahams (PDXOpen publishing initiative) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.