What does Down Stand for?

Down is an adverb very frequently used in our language. The term can refer to that or that which is located in a lower place with respect to another thing or individual. For example: “The pink shirt is stored in the bottom drawer, not in that one”, “My grandmother lives downstairs: I am in the fifth and she is in the fourth”, “I am going to keep the boxes underneath out of bed. ”

The notion of down below also refers to what advances or goes to a lower sector, or what ranks lowest in comparison with something that lies higher up: “The owner of the cottage intends to take the tree down, but neighbors are against ”, “ Due to the overturn, the driver was left with his head down ”, “ We will have to walk an hour downhill to reach the refuge ”.

In certain texts, the mention below allows us to refer to something that will appear next and that will be warned once the reading is advanced. A statement can begin by saying “We, the undersigned, are demanding the cessation of attacks on freedom of the press…” and, at the end of the text, include the signature of different people. By clarifying at the beginning that “the undersigned” endorse what is said in the text, the signatures in question are needed to specify who supports what has been said.

Down is also used in exclamations that express the intention to abolish, repeal, prohibit, remove, remove or overthrow someone or something: “Down with capitalism! Long live socialism! ” , “Down with the police!” , “We want foreign troops to leave our land! Down with the invaders! ” .

Although we all know that our language is not the same in all Spanish-speaking countries, we tend to focus on accent differences and certain very particular regionalisms, thus ignoring the myriad of features present in each version of Spanish. The term below is precisely the protagonist of one of these differences, and is in the same group as the adverbs above, back and forth.

Currently, the New Grammar of the Spanish language accepts the use of all of the following forms: below, below, above, above, behind, behind, in front of, and in front of. However, European Spanish opts for constructions headed below, above, behind and in front; In other words, the adverbs of place preferred by Spanish-speaking Europeans are all those that do not begin with a.

From the point of view of a Latin American person, saying “I left the book under the bed” or “my father was standing in front of the door” is normal, it does not sound bad nor does it show any signs of lack of correction. As of today, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, you should not notice any errors, as these forms have been accepted. However, in Spain these phrases sound bad, they cannot be intoned naturally, since when trying to insert them into everyday speech it seems to have one more letter; and indeed it does.

On the other hand, this does not mean that these terms are never used in European Spanish. The examples just presented are sentences that indicate the location of a thing or a person, and in these cases Spain prefers adverbs that do not start with a. However, when the intention is to refer to the direction in which a subject or object is moving, or its orientation, it is correct to use down, up, forward and backward (“walk forward”, “go forward”). below »).

Down