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Distancia desde Chicago a Nueva York es de 1500 kilómetros.

Distancia de Chicago a Nueva York es de 1500 km.

Distancia entre Chicago y Nueva York es de 1500 km.

Are these 3 sentences exactly the same or they have different meanings? Can I use them interchangeably?

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  • 5
    All these sentences should start with the article la: La distancia [...]
    – Gorpik
    May 6, 2016 at 8:52
  • What @gorpik said. In case you're interested to know why, here is a good answer, and here is the relevant part: "in the subject position, as a general (but not definitive) rule, [bare nouns] are not allowed."
    – Yay
    May 6, 2016 at 11:33

1 Answer 1

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The word "desde", according to the RAE dictionary, is used to indicate the staring point of a spacial or temporal distance. The word "hasta" is used to indicate the ending point. In this context, the words "de" and "a" are synonyms to "desde" and "hasta". However, we usually use the words in the pairs "desde...hasta..." and "de...a...".

The word "entre" means the same as the English word "between". In English, we can say "the distance from A to B", or "the distance between A and B". The same is true in Spanish. They both refer to the same distance. The only difference is that "desde A hasta B" or "de A hasta B" imply that A is the starting point and B is the ending point, whereas "entre A y B" does not.

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  • Based on what I learned here, "Distancia desde A a B es de 1500 kilómetros." should really be "La distancia desde A hesta B es de 1500 kilómetros." or "La distancia de A a B es de 1500 kilómetros.". Am I right?
    – Tony
    May 8, 2016 at 16:49
  • @Tony That is correct. May 8, 2016 at 22:50

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