aquí/acá - allí/allá

Question

Hola! Can someone please summarise when to use acá and allá instead of aquí and allí. Or post a link to the lesson if there is one. Thanks very much

Answer 1

Here is the link, I've found this one pretty helpful

http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/4460/aca-o-aqui-alla-o-alli

active link to address above

By the way, if you want to find these discussions on your own, type in one of the words in your question and scroll down to the bottom of the translation and there will be a list of questions relating the the word, so you just translate aquí and this discussion will be listed below the definition.

Activated your link - 0074b507, FEB 7, 2010

Answer 2

Aqui is when the thing is close to you, aca is not. Aca is more "over there." However I hear alla used for for that. "Where's the bathroom?" "Alla pasado de la sala" "Out there, past the living room"

Same for alli and alla. For example, if I go on vacation to Mexico and I want to tell a guy I met why we can't be together, I would say "no podemos estar juntos porque yo vivo alla!" as in over there, far away, in the US.

You may also use aquel/aquellos o aquella/aquellas for "that" in some contexts. For example, a song goes "desde aquella noche siento que te quiero"..."since THAT (one night) I feel like I love you"