donde esta la biblioteca

English

Etymology

Spanish dónde (“interrogative form of where”) + está (“be, is, are”) + la (“the”) + biblioteca (“library”) (where is the library); a phrase apparently often taught to beginning Spanish-language learners. The accents are usually omitted in English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdoʊndeɪ ɛsˈtɑ lɑ bɪblioʊˈtɛkɑ/, (anglicized) /ˈdɔndeɪ ˈɛstə lə bɪblioʊˈtɛkə/

Phrase

donde esta la biblioteca

1. Stock phrase used to denote someone's poor knowledge of Spanish.
   • 2002 [2001 May 15], Raoul Lowery Contreras, “English + Spanish == The USA”, in A Hispanic View: American Politics and the Politics of Immigration, →ISBN, page 257:

     Ola, como esta usted? Donde esta la biblioteca? Everyone who took high school Spanish knows that those phrases are probably all they recognize from their teenaged efforts to learn one of the three most spoken languages in the world.

   • 2004, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story:

     "Dónde está la biblioteca, Pedro?" "What?" "I'm thinking of opening a new Globo Gym down in Mexico City, so I've been boning up on my Spanish."

   • 2015 April 18, Oliver Sava, “Marvel’s Daredevil: “Speak Of The Devil””, in The A.V. Club‎^[1]:

     “Donde esta la biblioteca?” has become so overused to depict people with a very limited understanding of Spanish that it really pulls me out of the scene when Foggy says it to Mrs. Cardenas. Totally unnecessary line.

See also

• (Latin variant) Caecilius est in horto (literally “Caecilius is in the garden”)
• (French variant) la plume de ma tante (literally “my aunt's pen”)
• (Welsh variant) rydw i'n hoffi coffi (literally “I like coffee”)
• Versions in other languages for English:
  • (Hong Kong Cantonese) I go to school by bus
  • (Brazilian Portuguese) the book is on the table
  • (French) Where is Brian?, Brian is in the kitchen; my tailor is rich
  • (Japanese) this is a pen (this is a pen)
  • (Russian, Ukrainian) London is the capital of Great Britain