On this video you’ll find some key expressions you need to know (or just to understand) about giving directions in American English. See if you can understand more or less what’s happening with the help of the subtitles and the following explanations:


DIRECTION= You can pronounce this /dɪrekʃən/ or /daɪrekʃən/ . On this video they use the first pronunciation.

PIZZA= an Italian word with an Italian pronunciation, so they pronounce it /pi:tsə/ (with the vowel in TEA, not the vowel in SHIP)

ATM= an Automated Teller Machine, used in America and in many countries around the world. In Britain we prefer "cash point" (or "cashier"). It’s a machine in the street (or "on the street", as Americans would say) where you can insert your credit card to get some money from your bank account.

GO DOWN THE STREET= go straight ahead / go straight on

TAKE A LEFT (AmE)= turn left

GO A BLOCK UP (AmE)= take the next turning.
A "block" is an area of land with buildings surrounded by streets around it, so if you walk for another block, you walk until you get to the next street (the next turning)

GO TWO BLOCKS TO THE LEFT= take the second turning to the left

GO UP ONE BLOCK= continue walking until the next turning

WE TOOK A LEFT= we turned left