Depends on where you want to go downtown

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

At a bus station

Ticket seller: Hi, can I help you?
Man: Yes, I want to go places. I want to travel.
Ticket seller: Where do you want to travel?
Man: Downtown.
Ticket seller: Downtown. That’s not very far.
Man: Then how do I get downtown?
Ticket seller: That depends.
Man: Depends on what?
Ticket seller: Depends on whether you want to take the bus or the subway.
Man: I want to take the bus.
Ticket seller: Subway is quicker.
Man: It doesn’t matter if the subway is quicker.
I want to take the bus. Which bus do I take?
Ticket seller: Depends.

Man: Depends on what?

Ticket seller: Depends on where you want to go downtown.

Man: What do you mean?

Ticket seller: There are three bus routes that go downtown, 7A, 7B, and 7C. 7A, 7B, 7C. I got it. 7A starts on King Street, goes into Main street. 7B goes along King Street but turns right on the Rosehill Avenue. 7C goes along King Street but turns left on the Park Road.

Man: And all three streets are downtown.

Ticket seller: Yes. Which one would you like to take?

Man: Oh, pardon?

Ticket seller: Where would you like to go downtown?

Man: I’d like to go to the center of the downtown.

Ticket seller: Then you want Main Street? That’s the center of downtown.
So, you want to take 7A.

.
.

1- What does “where you want to go downtown?” mean?

Does it mean “Which way/course/route you want to go downtown”?

2- Is “where you want to go downtown?=Where would you like to go downtown?”?

Thank you

2 Likes
2

The downtown area seems to be rather large.
Both are basically saying “Where in the downtown area do you want to go?”

3 Likes
3

You can always go downtown…

3 Likes
4

Thank you so much, Arinker :rose:

1 Like
5

Thank you so much, Torsten :rose:

Very nice.

2 Likes
6

Nice, that’s Petula Clark, right?

2 Likes
7

I have another question: :point_down:

7A starts on King Street, goes into Main street.
7B goes along King Street but turns right on the Rosehill Avenue.
7C goes along King Street but turns left on the Park Road.

1- What does “starts” mean?
Does it mean “starts to move”?

2- Is “goes along” a phrasal berb here?
What does “7B goes along King Street” mean?

3- What does “turns right on the Rosehill Avenue” mean?
Does it mean “turns right and goes into Rosehill Avenue”?

Thanks

2 Likes
8

I don’t have the answer yet, but I’ll look it up for you. Okay?

2 Likes
9

Hi Rezaforu,

I know now what it means, but I cannot always find the correct words. I think what you really want to know is, what the meaning of ‘downtown’ is. It means the central part of a city, town…
I’m highly recommending the following link, google it: Cambridge dictionary online for free. It’s online. By the way, consult more than one dictionary…I’m sure you know what I mean. Thank you, you’ve always been great company and I hope our friendship will contunue…I’m sure we’ll be strong together, won’t we? United we stand, together we fall…I like the united part and I’m sure you like it as much as I do. They do say: ‘War makes early risers of us all…’ We don’t need war to become friends, we became that a long time ago, I’m happy to say and feel that we haven’t lost that…I mean our friendship. It’s very dear to me and it means more to me than anything.

2 Likes
10
  1. Start means begin.

The bus route has many “bus stops” where passengers can board the bus (or get off the bus). The first stop is the start or beginning of the route.

  1. Goes along means travels. The bus travels on King Street.

  2. Yes, it means the bus turns right on Rosehill Avenue.

2 Likes
11

Goes along or go along can have very different meanings in different contexts.

A: I’m going to the store.
B: Can I go along?

This means B is asking to join A.

A: I think we should paint the house first before we move the furniture in.
B: I’ll go along with that.

This means that B agrees with A.

3 Likes
12

The ticket seller is describing three bus routes - that is the paths that buses follow as they go through the city. The route is a line on a map that the bus follows.
Of course, the bus that follows Route 7A is probably called “The 7A Bus”.

Route 7A has its beginning on King Street. This is one end of the route. We don’t know where the other end is.

Route 7B follows King Street. That is to say Bus 7B drives down King street.

You’re right in #3. Route 7A “turns right on[to] Rosehill Avenue.”
We would use “on “or “onto” Rosehill Avenue rather than “into”.
There may be regional differences, but “the” before the street name is not usually used.

3 Likes
13

Thank you so much, NearlyNapping :rose:
Very nice.

1 Like
14

Thank you so much, Arinker :rose:
Very nice.

1 Like
15

I’ve never heard ‘into’ used for a street, but it might be used for an alley, driveway or parking lot.

These videos are Canadian. It’s possible they say “into a street” in parts of Canada.

4 Likes
16

It seems we were typing at the same time earlier.

My regional difference comment was with respect to “the Rosehill Avenue”. On the west coast of the US they tend to call Interstate Highway Routes “the 5” or “the 405”. I don’t know what they would say for “Rosehill Avenue”.

3 Likes
17

Online audio to text converter:

Ticket Seller:1
7-A starts on Kingsstreet, goes all the way in the Main Street. ←
7-B goes along Kingsstreet, but turns right on the Rose Hill Avenue.
7-C goes along Kingsstreet, but turns left on the park road.

Man: pardon?

Ticket Seller:2
7-A starts on Kingsstreet, goes into Main Street. ←
7-B goes along Kingsstreet, but turns right onto Rose Hill Avenue. ← onto OR on the
7-C goes along Kingsstreet, but turns left on the park road.

1 Like
18

Every “the” from the converter is actually “to” on the audio.
“King Street” is two words.
“Park Road should be capitalized. I’m assuming that Park Road is a proper name for the road. If he were referring to the road that goes through the park, he would need to say “the park road”.
“In to” should be two words. Here it means “in towards”, not entering into something.

3 Likes
19

Thank you so much, Arinker :rose:
Very nice.

1 Like