What’s around the corner from the toy store?
The answer is the movie theater, the tower.
I don’t understand what “around the corner from the toy store” mean.
I like your version of map, easy and clear!!!
It means that, if you were standing outside the entrance of the toy store, you would need to turn the corner of the same block in order to get to the place being spoken of. The picture is not great; the movie theater could equally be described as beside the toy store, across the aisle from the toy store (since you wouldn’t actually need to turn any corners to get from the toy store door to the right hand movie theatre door), or even opposite the toy store (since the toy store occupies the full length of the top wall of the block). You would need to turn a corner to get from the toy store door to the tower door, though, so that can be fairly described as ‘around the corner from the toy store’.
Does that help?
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Not really.
Forget the picture. Let’s try another approach. (Draw your own picture if you need to.)
Imagine a city street and you’re at a sushi bar. You walk out the front door of the sushi bar and you’re on the sidewalk. You turn left and you pass a comedy club, a tobacco shop and a corner bakery (all on your left) and now you have reached the end of the block. You are now standing on the sidewalk at the intersection of two streets. The bakery is on the corner and you are standing on the corner. If you walk straight ahead, you will have to cross the crosswalk. If you turn right, you will have to cross another crosswalk. But if you turn left and continue walking on the sidewalk past the bakery, you have just turned the corner. After you pass the bakery, there is a sandwich shop and just past the sandwich shop there is a laundry service (all on your left). The sandwich shop and the laundry are around the corner from the sushi bar, the comedy club and the tobacco shop. Likewise, the tobacco shop, the comedy club and the sushi bar are around the corner from the laundry and the sandwich shop. (The corner bakery is on the corner, so it faces both streets. One side faces the same street as the tobacco shop, the comedy club and the sushi bar; the other side faces the same street as the sandwich shop and the laundry.)
Now imagine you’re back at the sushi bar and you have just finished your meal. Not completely familiar with your surroundings, you tell the waiter, “My hotel is nearby. Where is the nearest laundry?” The waiter says, “Oh, it’s right around the corner from here, just past the bakery.”
Now, do you know what around the corner from means?
Link here for a street view. (Not the same view as the one I just described).
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Yes, I think I’m kind of get the idea of “around the corner from”.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart, brucenator. That’s impressive!!!
p.s. I drew the map that you described above, I like it a lot.
I understand. Direction words can be confusing or hard to understand. Pass, go past, up the street, down the street, turn the corner, on the corner, around the corner from, across from, etc, etc. I sometimes have trouble understanding these kinds of word combinations in Dutch.
By the way, if the illustration were on a street instead of inside a mall, the toy store would be on the corner. If you went out the toy store door and to you left, you would be at the street corner and you would have to cross the street to get to the movie theatre. So in that situation I would say the movie theatre is across the street from the toy store, even though the store front (where the entrance is) is not facing the movie theatre. This is what WinterShaker meant when they said the movie theater is across the aisle from the toy store. The aisle is the area in the mall with all the ‘traffic’ between stores, like a street, but with people walking instead of cars driving. Foot traffic. Just like a street, you have to cross the aisle to get to the movie theatre. (At least I’m assuming that’s what they refer to it as in the UK: the “aisle.” I really don’t know what we call the foot traffic area inside a mall in the US. I don’t call it anything, I just walk on it, and I just say that this store is across from that store.)
Inside the mall, I would say the food court is across from the toy store and the movie theatre is just past the toy store (because you have to pass by it in order to get to the movie theatre). If we were standing by the restaurant near the mall entrance and for some reason we couldn’t see the movie theatre and you asked for directions, I would point toward the toy store and say, “Go straight past the toy store.”
If you went out the toy store door and to your right, you would have to turn right at the corner to get to the entrance of the tower. This is what WinterShaker meant when they said you would need to turn a corner to get from the toy store door to the tower door. Even though the tower is right next to the toy store, the tower entrance is around the corner from the toy store.
Maybe think of it this way. The block is rectangular, like a square, and the corner is a 90 degree angle. It is “square.” But the path that you follow that encompasses the square is more “round” like an oval or a circle. A square inside a round circle. So you walk around the block, you go around the corner, and one place is around the corner from another place.
(see illustration:
Around The Corner - Language Forum @ LingQ )
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