Wednesday 20 May 2015

What Is Your Neighbourhood Like?

Introduction


This post is about the use of describing places in general, and more specifically describing your own neighbourhood.





SCENARIO



Imagine you are talking to a relative, a friend or a work colleague about the place where you come from. The other person wants to knows a little more about where you live and says: “what is your neighbourhood like?

In Spanish, the other person could choose to be less formal and say:
¿Cómo es tu barrio?*

Alternatively, he/ she could choose to be more formal and say:
¿Cómo es su barrio?*


OUR TIP

Answering that question should be quite straightforward. You should NOT need to consider more formal or less formal replies. Just say something about your neighbourhood


Perhaps you want to mention:
  • Its name.
  • Its location.
  • Its size (big/ small/ its population).
  • Its history/ anything the town is known for.
  • Any features (old church/ historic sites/ etc.)
  • Whether it is clean/ dirty, noisy/ quiet, etc..


Here are some examples of what you could say about your neighbourhood:
  • El barrio de Triana es mi barrio (Triana is my neighbourhood).
  • Triana es un barrio de Sevilla (Triana is a neighbourhood in Seville).
  • Mi barrio es un barrio muy típico (my neighbourhood is a very typical neighbourhood).
  • Mi barrio es un barrio muy popular (my neighbourhood is a very popular neighbourhood).
  • Mi barrio tiene unos cincuenta mil habitantes (my neighbourhood has some 50,000 inhabitants).
  • Mi barrio es muy antiguo (my neighbourhood is very old).
  • Mi barrio es famoso por sus fiestas (my neighbourhood is famous for its 'fiestas').
  • Mi barrio tiene una iglesia del siglo XIII (my neighbourhood has a thirteenth century church).
  • Mi barrio es muy limpio (my neighbourhood is very clean).
  • Mi barrio es muy tranquilo (my neighbourhood is very quiet).
  • Mi barrio es muy alegre y bullicioso (literally: my neighbourhood is very 'happy and noisy'- my neighbourhood has a cheerful bustling/ bubbly/ lively atmosphere).
  • En mi barrio hay un supermercado, un banco y una farmacia (there is a supermarket, a bank and a chemist in my neighbourhood).

*Notes

A similar question could be used in the slightly different scenario in which the subject of conversation is the town in which you live. See a post dealing describing your town.




Now you should practise answering the question:
¿Cómo es tu barrio?

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