Today’s Spanish word of the day is “abajo”.
It’s an adverb that can translate as “down”, “below”, “underneath”, “downward” or “downstairs”.
The word “abajo” is formed from joining the prefix a-, meaning “towards”, to the adjective “bajo”, meaning “short” or “low”.
Abajo vs. debajo
Confusingly, the Spanish words “abajo” and “debajo” both sound very similar and have very similar meanings. They both refer to things that are lower down, or underneath something else.
However, they are used in different ways.
“Abajo” is used to refer to something that is lower down in a general sense, without saying explicitly what is above it. For example:
- Vamos abajo. – Let’s go down.
“Debajo” is used to refer to something that is underneath something in particular. It is usually followed by the word “de” and the object that is above. For example:
- El perro está debajo de la mesa. – The dog is under the table.
Not the use of “de” after “debajo”. It would be grammatically incorrect to simply say, “el perro está debajo” without specifying what the dog was underneath.
Example sentences
Para ir al baño, baja las escaleras; está abajo.
To go to the bathroom, go down the stairs; it’s downstairs.
¿Cómo llego a la calle de abajo?
How do I get to the street below?
¿Puedes esperarme abajo?
Can you wait for me downstairs?
Fíjense en el gráfico de abajo, que muestra el crecimiento anual.
Look at the graph below, which shows the annual growth.
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