Where Japanese teachers and students help each other

Course 2, Session 3, Grammar Notes : Describing Where Things Are

We learned in previous lesson that to ask for the location of item X, you can use the word "doko/どこ (where)" and say "X wa doko deska.

マクドナルドはどこですか。

makudonarudo wa doko desuka.

Where's McDonald's?

In response, one can, of course, point and say:

In this lesson, we will learn to describe locations in more detail. More specifically, we learn to describe the location of an item relative to another item, as in "X is in front of Y." The Japanese version looks like X wa Y no mae desu.

（マクドナルドは）あのデパートのまえです。

( makudonarudo wa) ano depaato no mae desu.

It's in front of that department store.

Other useful words describing locations are as follows :

ぎんこうはとしょかんのとなりです。

ginkou wa toshokan no tonari desu。

The bank is nest to the library.

かさはテーブルのしたです。

kasa wa teeburu no shita desu。

The umbrella is under the table.

レストランはデパートとびょういんのあいだです。

resutoran wa depaato to byouin no aida desu。

The restaurant is between the department store and the hospital.

One can use any of the above location words together with a verb to describe an event that occurs in the place. To use these phrases with verbs such as たべる／taberu and まつ／matsu, one will need the particle で／de.

わたしはハーゲンダッツのまえでメアリーさんをまちます。

I will wait for mary in front of the Haagen-dazs place.