The directions of the compass in Spanish are vaguely similar to those of English and ultimately come from the same Indo-European roots. However, Spanish also has some synonyms for some of the directions as well as special adjective forms that also should be learned.
The four points of the compass are as follows:
- norte — north
- este (or, less commonly, oriente) — east
- sur — south
- oeste (or, less commonly, occidente)— west
As in English, the directions can be combined to indicate intermediate points:
- nornoreste — north-northeast
- noreste — northeast
- estenoreste — east-northeast
- estesudeste — east-southeast
- sudeste — southeast
- sudsudeste — south-southeast
- sudsudoeste — south-southwest
- sudoeste — southwest
- oestesudoeste — west-southwest
- oestenoroeste — west-northwest
- noroeste — northwest
- nornoroeste — north-northwest
In some areas, the use of
sur- as the stem meaning "south" is preferred, so you'll also hear the variations such
sureste and
suroeste alone as well as in combination forms such as
sursureste. Combinations using
oriente and
occidente, such as
suroccidente for "southwest" and
nororiente for "northeast," are also used.
Adjective forms — such as the equivalents of "northern" and "eastern" — can be made by preceding the direction with del (literally, "of the") as in del norte and del sur to mean "northern" and "southern," respectively. These are indicated below along with the special adjective forms:
- del norte, norteño, septentrional — northern
- del este, oriental — eastern
- del sur, sureño, austral, meridional — southern
- del oeste, occidental — western
To indicate direction of movement, forms such as
del oeste for "from the west" and
hacia el oeste for "toward the west" are used. Thus, an easterly wind (one coming from the east) is a
viento del este, while to say that a door faces east, for example, you could say "
la puerta mira hacia el este."
