語彙 – Directions

Today lesson is about – Directions

今日のレッスンは「道順」についてです

Vocabulary – 語彙

Behind – 後ろに

In front – 前に

Next to – 隣

Beside – 横

Below -下

Between – 間

In – 中

On – 上

Over – 上

Under – 下

On top – 上

Left – 左

Right – 右

Back- 後ろ

Front – 前

Straight forward – まっすぐ前へ

Around – 周り

Corner- 角

Down -下へ

Downstairs – 階下

Upstairs – 階上

North – 北

West – 西

South – 南

East – 東

Near – 近く

Far – 遠い

Close – 近い

Past – 過去

Before – 前

Head – 頭

High – 高い

Low – 低い

Journey/ travel – 旅/旅行

Miles – マイル

Kilometre – キロメートル

First – 名

 Last – 姓

Numbers, 2^nd etc  – 数字

About – について

Look for – 探す

Destination- 目的地

Example Sentences -例文

When you are going somewhere, you can say you are travelling, and the way you get there is your journey.  I travelled to Japan in 2020. It was a long journey, I had to go by car, train and plane.

When you look at a map, there are 4 directions you can go – North, East, South and West.

In Japan, Hokkaido is in the north, Tokyo is on the east coast, Okinawa in south of everything else and Niigata is on the west coast.

Miles and kilometres are used to measure distance. You will see this on sign posts but different countries use different ones. The UK uses miles, and you will just see “London 30”  …we all know the measurement is miles, but sometimes they will put “London 30m”  or even “London 30 miles”.

In Japan, KM is used. You will see signs saying “Tokyo 30km”.

If you want to travel from Tokyo to Niigata you will have to drive about 300km. If you want to go from Tokyo to Hokkaido the journey will be longer, it is going to be a 700 mile drive.

Where you are looking right now is “in front” of you. If you turn around, this is behind you.

Anything to your left of right can be “beside” you, or “next to” you. If you look down to the floor, this is “below” you.  When you are in a tall building, looking down to the street, the people you see there are below you. We are talking about something in the middle, it is “between” the other things. You can say a slice of cheese is placed between bread two slices make a sandwich.  

You put things in a box, but you put things on a table. You can also say you placed it on top of something, if move an object on another.

You can jump over a box and hide under your bed.

You have two hands, a left hand and a right hand. Most people write with their right hand and most people wear a watch on their left hand. We can use left and right to give directions.

When you look at a house, it will have a front, which you can see from the street, and a back, where you cannot see.

If you go straight forward, it means you do not change direction. Sometimes you might have to go around something berceuse it is in your way, or you may have to go around a corner in the road.

Using the word down can have two meanings.  It can mean to go below, such as go down into the subway station that is below the street, but you may also hear being used to mean “just go in that direction”. You will hear directions like “just go down that street until you see a blue door”. This means just walk along the street until you see the blue door, you are not going below. I think people used to say this about only walking down a mountain path, but it is just used for any street, even if it is flat.

A similar word is “head” and while this word is where your eyes and nose are … it also means to go in a direction. You will be told “head in that direction” as they point what way to go.

A lot of buildings have more than one floor, which means you need to go upstairs to get to the floor, then you have to come back downstairs to leave.

The words high and low are not very common for directions, but they can be used at times, especially in shops. Someone might say that an item is on one of the shelves and it is low down, so they want you to look down towards your feet. If something is high you need to look up towards the sky.

If something is close to you, it means it is near and you can probably touch it or get to it easily. If something is far away, it means is the opposite and is something you cannot touch and it would take you a long time to reach it.

When someone is giving you directions they will say things like “walk past the bakery” the word past here means to keep going. Don’t stop at the bakery, keep walking until you are “past” it. I know this word is always used in time and grammar, but if you hear it in directions it means to keep going.  Some people get this wrong and say “walk passed” …sometimes it can sound the same, but it is wrong.

The opposite of this is “before” you might be told to “the café is just before the bakery” this means that when you walking down the street, the café is something you will see first, then you will see the bakery.  You will see the café before you see the baker.

When giving directions, people will often use numbers to help you find your destination. They might say something like “take the 2^nd left turn” or “it is about 100m away” so you should make sure you are comfortable with the basic numbers. They will also say things like “look for the post office, and then turn left”.

You will see similar with the words “first” and “last”. First is of course a number (1^st) so it is the same as above, but “last” means the final option. Someone might say “it is the last door on the right”. You are probably going to see a number of doors on the right hand side, and the “last” one is the final door, right at the end.

Questions -質問

答えを記入するか、その場で答えてください

1. What is in front of you, what is behind you?
2. What is to your left, what is to your right?
3. If you are in Tokyo, what direction must you travel to get to Hokkaido?
4. If you are in Japan, what direction is China?
5. Do you live near or far from Tokyo?
6. How many miles/or kilometres are you from Tokyo?
7. What is under your bed?
8. Can you give me directions to the convenience store?
9. Do you live far from, or close to the convenience store?
10. Are you upstairs or downstairs?

Example Answers – 回答例

あなたの答えは異なりますか

1. My computer screen is in front of me and cat is behind me.
2. To my left there is a wall, and to the right is the door.
3. You have to travel north to get to Hokkaido.
4. China is to the west.
5. I live very far from Tokyo.
6. I think I am 5000 miles away from Tokyo
7. Hopefully nothing is under my bed. Maybe there is a monster.
8. Go outside, turn left, walk to the end of  the street and then turn right and walk down the road about 100m and then you will see the store straight in front of you.
9. I live close to the convenience store, it is just around the corner.
10.   I am upstairs. I will go downstairs at lunch time.

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