How to use ALLÁ, ALLÍ, ACÁ, and AQUÍ in Spanish

Locating things, people, and animals in space in Spanish. How to do it properly?

In Spanish we use “allá” as a translation of THERE, when something or someone is far from you, and we use “allí” when the thing or person is far from you but not as far as before…

The same thing happens with “aquí”, that we use as a translation of HERE, when something or someone is super close to you, and we use “acá” when the thing or person is still close to you but not as close as before…

As you can see, all this makes it very difficult to establish what is the actual difference in distance, and people use it more based on the context:

- The dog is there, at the park just outside the house

- El perro está ALLÁ, en el parque apenas afuera de casa

And…

- The dog is there, right at the entrance of the house

- El perro está ALLÍ, exactamente en la entrada de la casa

___

- The dog is here, in the house

- El perro está ACÁ, en la casa

And…

- The dog is here, with me

- El perro está AQUÍ, conmigo

___

Last but not least…, we also have “AHÍ” and we use it as a “wildcard” to represent anything that it’s NOT super close to you, so…, “AHÍ” can be used interchangeably with:

• ACÁ

• ALLÍ

• ALLÁ

• But…, not with AQUÍ 🙂

Qué tengas un día maravilloso!

Claudio