Wednesday 14 December 2011

Are There Any Chemists Near You?

Introduction



This post is about giving information about facilities in the vicinity, and more specifically about using "hay" to say whether there are or there aren't any chemists nearby.




SCENARIO


Imagine you are talking on the phone to a relative, a friend or a work colleague. The other person is wants information about the availability of chemist where you are and say to you: "is there any chemists near you?"

In Spanish, the other person could say:
¿Hay farmacias por ahí?




OUR TIP

The question is an invitation for you to say whether or not there are any chemists  in the vicinity. A yes/no answer may be strictly sufficient. However, with little effort, your answer could be a lot more informative


Perhaps you want to choose an answer which says that:
  • No, there aren't any chemists in the vicinity.
  • Yes there is one of chemist's quite near.
  • There are several chemists near you.

Here are some examples which deal with those basic possibilities:
  • No, por aquí no hay* farmacias (no, there aren't any chemists around here).
  • Sí, hay* una farmacia bastante cerca (yes, there is a chemist's quite near).
  • Sí, hay* varias farmacias por aquí (yes, there are several chemists around here).

Now you should practice answering the question:
¿Hay farmacias por ahí?

*Please see grammar below

Grammar
Please note the various meanings/ uses of 'hay':
hay
there is
there are
no hay
there isn't
there aren't

¿hay?
is there?
are there?
¿no hay?
isn't there?
aren't there?


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1 comment:

Margaret M said...

Hay muchas farmacias por aqui, no tienes que preocuparte.