Down

Abajo is an adverb that is 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 that one" , "My grandmother lives downstairs: I'm on the fifth floor and she is on the fourth" , "I'm going to put the boxes underneath out of bed” .

The notion 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 opposed” , “ Due to the overturn, the driver was left with his head down ” , “ We will have to walk an hour downhill to get to the shelter ” .

In certain texts , the mention below allows to allude to something that will appear next and that will be noticed once the reading progresses. A statement can begin by saying "The undersigned demand 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" support what is said in the text, the signatures in question are needed to specify who supports what is said.

Abajo is also used in exclamations that express the intention to abolish, repeal, prohibit, dismiss, 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 particularities 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.

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

From the point of view of a Latin American person, saying "I put the book under the bed" or "my father was standing in front of the door" is normal, it does not sound bad or show any sign of lack of correction. As of today, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, you shouldn't 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 they seem to have one letter too many; And, in fact, 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 begin with a . However, when the intention is to refer to the direction in which a subject or object is moving, or to its orientation, it is correct to use down , up , forward and back ( "walk forward" , "go straight down " ).