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Saying 'north of' in Spanish with 'al norte de'

In English, a compass direction can sit right in front of a place: north of the city, in the south of Italy, or simply northern Spain. In Spanish, words like norte, sur, este and oeste work as ordinary nouns. Like most nouns, they need the article el, and they link to the place with de. So 'north of Madrid' becomes al norte de Madrid, literally 'to the north of Madrid'.

English speakers often drop the article and say something like norte de Madrid, or they translate 'northern Spain' word for word. The fix is simple once you see the pattern. The directions are also written in lowercase, unless they are part of a proper name such as Corea del Sur.

Word list
estemA2 east al este de = east of nortemA2 north al norte de = north of oestemA2 west al oeste de = west of surmA2 south al sur de = south of nordestemB1 northeast al nordeste de = northeast of norestemB1 northeast al noreste de = northeast of noroestemB1 northwest al noroeste de = northwest of occidentemB1 west al occidente de = west of (formal) orientemB1 east al oriente de = east of (formal) sudmB1 south al sud de = south of (rare) sudestemB1 southeast al sudeste de = southeast of sudoestemB1 southwest al sudoeste de = southwest of surestemB1 southeast al sureste de = southeast of suroestemB1 southwest al suroeste de = southwest of levantemB2 east al levante de = east of (literary) mediodíamC1 south al mediodía de = south of (literary)
How it works

There are two patterns, and the difference between them matters:

  • al norte de + place: the thing is outside the place, in that direction from it (English 'north of').
  • en el norte de + place: the thing is inside the place, in its northern part (English 'in the north of' or 'northern').

Remember that a + el becomes al, and de + el becomes del: al este del río.

Toledo está al sur de Madrid.
(Toledo is south of Madrid.)
El aeropuerto está al norte de la ciudad.
(The airport is north of the city.)
Vivo en el norte de España.
(I live in northern Spain.)

Toledo is not in Madrid, so you say al sur de. Your home is inside Spain, so you say en el norte de.

The words
The four main points

The everyday words are norte, sur, este and oeste. All of them are masculine: el norte, el sur, el este, el oeste.

Hay un parque muy bonito al este del río.
(There is a very nice park east of the river.)
Mi pueblo está en el oeste del país.
(My village is in the west of the country.)
The in-between points

The combined directions follow exactly the same pattern. Each comes in two spellings. The forms with nor- and sur- are the most common: noreste, noroeste, sureste, suroeste. The forms nordeste, sudeste and sudoeste mean the same thing and are also correct.

Galicia está en el noroeste de España.
(Galicia is in the northwest of Spain.)
Hay montañas al noreste de la ciudad.
(There are mountains northeast of the city.)
Murcia está en el sureste de la península.
(Murcia is in the southeast of the peninsula.)
Cádiz está en el suroeste de Andalucía.
(Cádiz is in the southwest of Andalusia.)
Formal and literary words

Oriente (east) and occidente (west) appear in more formal texts. Levante (east) and mediodía (south) are literary or regional, and sud is a rare variant of sur. They all use the same pattern: al oriente de, al occidente de, al levante de, al mediodía de, al sud de. Poniente (west) works like levante.

La ciudad está al oriente del lago.
(The city lies east of the lake.)
Watch out
Proper names behave differently

In names of countries and regions, the direction is capitalized and does not follow the location pattern: Corea del Norte, América del Sur, Europa del Este, Polo Norte. These are simply names.

Mi prima vive en Corea del Sur.
(My cousin lives in South Korea.)
Bare directions exist too

After words like rumbo (heading) or in labels, the direction can appear without an article: rumbo norte, el hemisferio sur. To say where something is in relation to a place, though, use al ... de or en el ... de.

Mediodía usually means noon

On its own, al mediodía almost always means 'at noon'. Don't use it for 'south' in everyday speech.

Comemos al mediodía.
(We have lunch at noon.)
Este also means 'this'

The context makes it clear: este libro is 'this book', and el este is 'the east'. Adjectives such as septentrional (northern) and meridional (southern) exist, but they are formal. In everyday Spanish, del norte or en el norte sounds more natural.

Summary

Treat compass points as lowercase nouns with el. Use al norte de (or al sur de, al este de, and so on) for a place outside and in that direction, and en el norte de for the northern part of a place. Only proper names like Corea del Sur take capitals and skip this pattern.