El sur, este, norte, oeste or al sur, este, norte, oeste

Question

I just finished lesson 1.15, Directions in the Big City. Did I miss something? While going through the lesson it was el sur, el este, el norte, el oeste, but when I was in the Write section it was al sur. What did I miss? When do I us el or al with directions?

Answer 1

"El" means "the." "Al" is a contraction of "a + el", which means "to the."

Por ejemplo: La tienda está al sur de aquí. The store is south of here.

Answer 2

Yea, what he said.

In the lesson, you were dealing with the direction itself. In English we use things like the West, out west, up north, etc. The West is el oeste, the South is el sur.

In the write section, you were providing directions towards ... to the east, to the west, and then Warren's 'a el este' or al este kicks in. Yes?