Name: How to Give Directions in English: Advanced English Lesson
Uploaded: 2024-04-18T08:09:42.000Z
Duration: 13 min 50 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

to 不定詞

you know where room 302 is? Did you just freeze  in fear because you weren't sure what to say?  

命令形

Never fear. Today, I'm here to  help you. Let's talk about it. 

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  And today you are going to learn how to really ask  

and give directions in English. Now, probably  a long time ago in your first English classes,  

you learned turn right, go straight. But the  reality is nowadays we all use a GPS when we're  

navigating around a new city. So this isn't really  the most useful way to learn directions, but we do  

still ask for directions in different places.  For example, if you get a job at a new office,  

you might need to ask, "Oh, excuse me, where's  the printer paper." Or if you're going to a zoo,  

you might say, "Hey, excuse me, can you point  me in the direction of the elephants?" We still  

ask for directions and you need to be able to ask  politely and answer correctly as well. So that's  

what you're going to learn in today's lesson. And like always, I have created a free  

PDF worksheet to help you remember all of  today's questions, answers, phrases, ideas,  

and you can answer Vanessa's challenge question  at the bottom of the PDF worksheet. You can click  

on the link in the description to download that  free PDF worksheet today. Let's get started by  

asking some common questions for directions. The  first set are very direct, but we can always add,  

excuse me, to the beginning to be a little more  polite. Excuse me. My ticket says platform six.  

Where is that? What a lovely direct question.  Excuse me. I'm a new employee. Where do I go?  

This is a lovely question. Where do I go? If  you get invited to someone's house and then you  

realize you don't know where it is, you can say,  "I realize I haven't been to your house before.  

How do I get there?" How do I get there?  

Or in the office, you might ask, "Excuse  me, where's the paper for the copy machine."  

Where's the paper for the copy machine? Beautiful.  Let's go on to some more polite questions that are  

slightly longer, but you can do it. Excuse  me. Can you tell me how to get to platform  

six? Can you tell me how to get to platform six?  Excuse me, where can I find the toilet paper?  

Excuse me, where can I find the toilet paper?  If it's the year 2020, the answer is nowhere.  

Excuse me. I'm looking for Dr. Smith's office.  Excuse me. I'm trying to find Dr. Smith's office.  

Now, this looks like a statement, but really  when you are approaching someone else, it is  

perceived as a question. So if you came up to  me and said, excuse me, I'm looking for Dr.  

Smith's office. I would know, oh, you're lost. You can't find his office. And I might say,  

all right, it's right over there. Excuse me, can  you help me find my classroom? I'm lost. Can you  

help me find my classroom? And our last question  is a little bit long, but it's quite common.  

Excuse me, can you point me in the direction  of the exit? Can you point me in the direction  

of the exit? So here, you're not asking  them to go there with you and to show you  

exactly where it is, you just want them to point,  Hey, it's generally over that way. Can you point  

me in the direction of the exit? You might even  ask this at the grocery store too if you don't  

want the employee to have to stop what they're  doing and then go all the way with you to show  

you where the breakfast cereal is. You might  just say, excuse me, can you point me in the  

direction of the breakfast cereal? This is a great question to ask.  

Now that we've talked about some common questions  for asking for directions, let's talk about giving  

directions, giving an answer. Now, these  might be things that you need to understand  

because someone will tell them to you and you  need to remember them so you can find your way,  

or someone might be asking you, "Hey, how do I  get there?" And you need to know how to respond.  

We're going to be taking a look at a couple common  situations where we still ask for directions. The  

first one is inside a building, specifically in a  school. What if someone asked you this question? 

Would you know how to respond to that? Well, let  me give you an example. Go up to the third floor  

through the double doors and down the hall and  it will be on the right. Here, we use a lot of  

prepositions. Go up to the third floor through  the double doors, down the hall. This is a fixed  

expression that we often, use down the hall. It's  not exactly going downhill, but it doesn't matter,  

down the hall and it will be on the right,  or maybe it will be on the left. Great. The  

next place where we often ask for directions is  in a grocery store. What if someone asked you  

this question? Would you know what to say? Dan: 

Excuse me, where can I find the organic breakfast  cereal? Excuse me? Where can I find the organic  

Well, if you work at that grocery store, you  could say the organic breakfast cereal is over  

on aisle three, near the canned  fruit, on the top shelf. Here,  

again, we are using wonderful prepositions  in context. It's over on aisle three,  

near the canned fruit, on the top shelf. If you'd  like to learn more grocery store vocabulary,  

you can check out this video I made where  I walked around an American grocery store  

and talked about everything that I saw and  tried to give you a lot of common vocabulary,  

phrases, cultural tips, and everything that you  need to know about in American grocery store. 

Let's go to our next scenario. Let's imagine that  you're visiting a new city and you're staying with  

a host and you'd like to ask the host some  advice, what if you asked this question? 

Dan: Can you help me find a good coffee shop?  

Can you help me find a good coffee shop? Vanessa: 

Well, first of all, great question.  Congratulations on asking a good question.  

The next thing is you would need to understand  the answer and someone might say to you, "Head  

down the street." Oh, does this sound familiar?  It sounds similar to down the hall. It's a very  

similar expression. Head down the street a  couple blocks. You can't miss it. Oh, I hate  

it when people say that because usually you miss  it. But this is a common verb, to head somewhere.  

It means you and your head are going in that  direction. Head down the street a couple blocks. 

This is usually for kind of defined streets,  but you know what, we use this generally too.  

Maybe you pass one street or two streets or three  streets. This is a couple blocks. This is a very  

American term. Head down the street, a couple  blocks. You can't miss it. Let's take a look  

at our next situation, which is in the zoo. We  recently went to the zoo and our kids were asking  

us nonstop the whole time. "Where's this? How can  we see this? When are we going to see this?" So  

if you find yourself at a zoo, you  might be asking a question like this. 

point me in the direction of the elephants? Can  you point me in the direction of the elephants? 

Vanessa: And I can answer you by saying,  

"To get to the elephants. You need to go through  the primate exhibit, turn left at the reptile  

house, and loop around the safari exhibit."  Oh, we've got lovely prepositions. Through the  

primate house. So you got to open the doors, go  through the primate house, and then you need to  

turn left at the reptile house and loop around.  So this is imagining that there is probably  

like a sidewalk that goes around the safari.  Loop around the safari, and then over there,  

that's where you're going to see the elephants. Next, let's look at asking for directions  

in a park. What if I asked you this question?  Would you know how to respond to me? 

Dan: Do you know where the park bathroom is?  

Do you know where the park bathroom is? Vanessa: 

All right. It might be an urgent situation. So  you need to know exactly how to give the right  

directions. You might say you need to follow the  path around the park, past the splash pad and the  

bathrooms are right next to the merry-go-round.  This is a common expression we often use:  

Right next to. We're not talking about right  and left, we're talking about immediately  

next to the merry-go-round. So when someone  says I'm right next to my car, it doesn't  

mean they're on the right side of their car, it  just means they're immediately beside their car. 

So we could say, you need to follow the path  around, go past the splash pad. We often use  

this expression. You're going to need to pass  some things. Go past the splash pad and the  

bathrooms are right next to the merry-go-round.  Good luck. Let's take a look at the next scenario,  