Spanish prepositions, general revision
How much do you know about Spanish prepositions? First you must know that a preposition is a word that connects words, and according to the thought expressed in the sentence, it serves to indicate the relation between these words. We have organized this lesson in three groups:
CATEGORIES OF SPANISH PREPOSITIONS
In general, Spanish prepositions are used in the following categories:
- Preposition + noun: Rose va al parque con lo niños (Rose goes to the park with the children).
- Preposition + pronoun: Este coche es de ella (This car is her).
This are call prepositional pronouns and you can learn more here in the link.
- Preposition + infinitive verb: Trabajan sin parar (They work without stopping).
Notice that in Spanish, the infinitive is the only verb form that can follow a preposition.
Lola regresa de trabajar a las 20:00 (Lola returns from working at 20:00)
No aprenderás español sin estudiar (You will no learn Spanish without studying).
- Verb + preposition: acostumbrarse a (to become accustomed to), acordarse de (to remember), casarse con (to marry), confiar en (to trust)…
Some verbs need to be used with a specific preposition. Unfortunately, there is not any specific rule that let us know which preposition use in each case, so you can only memorize them.
- Verb + A
- Verb + DE
- Verbs + CON
- Verbs + EN
- Verbs without preposition
LIST OF PREPOSITIONS IN SPANISH
Here you have the most popular prepositions in Spanish with the their most common translation into English. Below you will find the full list of Spanish prepositions:
- a (at; to)
- ante (before; in the presence of)
- bajo (underneath)
- con (with)
- contra (against)
- de (of; from)
- desde (from; since)
- durante (during)
- en (in)
- entre (among; between)
- hacia (toward)
- hasta (until)
- para (for; in order to)*
- por (by; for)*
- según (according to)
- sin (without)
- sobre (on; upon; above)
- tras (after; behind)
* POR and PARA are usually the prepositions that cause more difficulties, since both are usually translated as “for”
PREPOSITIONAL MODIFIERS
In the following section you will learn the rules for uses of prepositions, whether they are used in conjunction with other nouns to make adjectives or whether they are used to modify a verb.
A) Prepositional adjective: the union of a preposition and a noun that modifies another noun.
- noun preposition + noun = adjective
una camisa de algodón (a shirt of cotton).
una silla de madera (a wooden chair).
un reloj de oro (a gold watch).
una estrella de papel (a paper star).
B) Prepositional adverb: the union of a preposition and a noun that modifies a verb.
- verb preposition + noun = adverb
corre con rapidez (he runs fast).
Contact your tutor if you have any questions or you want exercises about prepositions. Don’t you have a Spanish tutor yet?
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