Prepositions in Spanish: what are they for and how are they used? We welcome you to the exciting world of prepositions in Spanish! Learning prepositions is something essential that you should do if you are a Spanish student, since it is one of the fundamental aspects of this beautiful
We welcome you to the exciting world of the prepositions in spanish!
Learn prepositions It is something essential what should you do if you are a Spanish student, since it is one of the fundamental aspects of this beautiful language.
Prepositions are small but powerful words that play a crucial role in the structure and meaning of sentences.
In this article we have prepared an extensive list of prepositions in Spanish, with many uses and examples.
We will introduce you to their meaning and use, as well as provide you with practical examples that will allow you to understand how to use them correctly.
You will learn what are the 23 prepositions in Spanish. We will explain to you what each of them is used for and we will focus on the 2 that are most used: to and of.
We know that learning a new language can seem challenging at first, but don't worry.
Our goal is to make this topic interesting and entertaining for you, drawing on real-life examples and situations.
By the end of this article, you will better understand prepositions in Spanish and you can use them effectively in your daily life.
If you think you need to create direct contact with Spanish teachers to achieve an excellent level of Spanish and put it into practice every day, we offer you a good option: come to our school! 😁
we are Hispania, Spanish school. We are in the magnificent city ofValencia, in Spain.
You can learn with the best teachers and the prestigious Hispania Method, which has received awards for years, in our face-to-face Spanish courses u online.
Sounds very tempting, right?
Prepositions, let's get you!
We start with the basics, a definition of a preposition would be the following:
A preposition is a word that establishes relationships between elements that make up a sentence, such as nouns, adjectives or verbs.
They are like types of links that join words and give meaning to sentences.
An example of a preposition would be to in the following sentence:
«I have seen to "Victor very happy."
There are many types of prepositions with all kinds of uses, we will see them right away!
The use of prepositions in Spanish It is essential to speak or understand Spanish.
These little words serve to express relationships of time, place, direction, possession, origin, instrument, cause, purpose and many more things.
If right now it is still not very clear to you, don't worry, later we will see very practical examples with each one that will help you better understand the meaning of the prepositions.
Now that you know more or less what prepositions are and what they are for, you are probably wondering:
"What are the prepositions in Spanish?"
"How many are there in total?"
There are 23 prepositions in total. Of those 23, 19 have been around forever and 4 have been introduced more recently. Let's get to know them!
The 19 prepositions who have been with us all their lives are:
TO, BEFORE, UNDER, FITS, WITH, AGAINST, FROM, IN, BETWEEN, TOWARDS, TO, FOR, BY, ACCORDING TO, WITHOUT, SO, ABOUT and AFTER.
Today we will focus on to and of, and we will explain them in great detail later.
Now, so that you have an idea of how these prepositions are used, we are going to briefly indicate the most important uses and examples with prepositions.
A: It has many uses, but one of the main ones is as direction or destination.
Ante: indicates a situation of confrontation, confrontation or position regarding something.
Low: expresses inferior position or submission.
with: can talk about company,
Against: indicates opposition, resistance or confrontation towards something or someone.
From: of It is a preposition that also has many uses (we will see them later). One of the most common is possession.
Since: initial point in time or space.
In: the preposition in It is one of the most common prepositions of place in Spanish. It is also one of the prepositions of time.
between: expresses the relationship of several elements.
Towards: direction or movement towards something or someone.
Until: the preposition until indicates final place or time.
For: the preposition for It has many uses. The one that is most used is that of purpose or purpose. In this use, for It is always accompanied by an infinitive (para + infinitive).
By: by It is a preposition that has many values. The best known is causa, which can be accompanied by a noun, pronoun, adjective or infinitive.
According to: indicates point of view and opinion.
Without: absence of something
About: It can indicate a topic of conversation.
After: moment after something.
We have not talked about fits and so because these grammatical prepositions have fallen into disuse and later we will dedicate a section to them.
In this list of prepositions with examples that we have made, we have included only one use of each preposition. But in reality, there are some that have many more.
For example, by and forThey have a lot of uses that we already explained in another article.
The prepositions that have the most uses are: to, of, with, in, by and for.
These are the prepositions that we usually work on in class because they are the ones that are used the most in Spanish.
These 4 words were added to the list of prepositions in 2009. They make up the 23 that exist today.
We explain what each one is used for.
During: during is a preposition that indicates the duration or amount of time in which something occurs.
Through: the means or mode used to accomplish something.
Versus: indicates a comparison, contrast or confrontation.
Via: indicates the means by which something is done.
These two prepositions fell into disuse a long time ago, poor things.
It is true that they can still be seen in some very formal or literary contexts, but in everyday life no one uses them anymore.
Fits: is similar to "near" or "next to." Fits It is a preposition that indicates the closeness of something or someone.
So: used to indicate "below".
Have you heard about the prepositional phrases?
It is important to note that they are not the same as prepositions.
We have seen that prepositions are small words that establish relationships between other words such as nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, etc.
On the other hand, prepositional phrases are groups of two or more words, that include prepositions and that they have a specific meaning.
In this way it is created a prepositional group which really acts as if it were a single preposition and has a single meaning.
We can find many prepositional phrases referring to the spatial positions of something or someone: IN FRONT OF, BEHIND, NEXT TO, BELOW, IN FRONT OF, NEXT TO, ABOVE, FAR FROM, etc.
Other prepositional phrases that are frequently used are:
Before: expresses priority.
After: expresses posteriority.
Through: the means or way by which something is done.
By dint of: something is achieved or done through constant effort.
Instead of / instead of: indicate a replacement or alternative.
What are the most used prepositions in Spanish?
At the beginning of the text we warned you that in this article we would talk in great detail about the prepositions to and of.
What is the reason? They are simply the most used prepositions.
They have many uses, so, without further ado, let's get to know them in depth!
Look at the following sentences:
«John was to market.
«Ángela did not attend the class of the Friday."
What do those mean to and of the? This is a phenomenon that only happens in these two prepositions. They are contractions.
When these prepositions are accompanied by the article "the", these words are formed.
Therefore, of the It is a preposition plus an article and to too.
What is the meaning of the preposition to?
Well the truth is that many!
The preposition to has a total of 7 different values and widely used in Spanish. They are the following.
This is the most common use of the preposition to. Indicates the destination or place to which we are heading.
Can go with many verbs of motion: go, come, return, arrive, go up, go down, etc.
Let's see this preposition with examples:
If we combine the verb to be in plural and we add the preposition to, we can talk about the date or day of the week in which we find ourselves.
Examples:
But attention, we will say we are in + months or seasons of the year. For example, we are in August or we are in summer.
We can also point out the time in which an action takes place.
Examples:
A is a preposition that can also express purpose.
Normally, we associate the use of purpose with the preposition for. But we can also do it with to when we use verbs of motion: go to + do something, come to + do something, etc,
Examples:
When we use the verbs of type gustar (like, enchant, hurt, fascinate, seem...), we always put to in front of the person.
This happens because in reality, the person is the indirect object, and the thing that is liked is the subject.
In this way, by adding the preposition to Before the person, we clarify that this person does not perform the action as a subject, but rather enjoys or suffers it as an indirect complement. Because, as you well know, in Spanish the subject generally does not take a preposition.
Examples:
We puttoin front of a person if we have the following structure:
Subject + verb + A + someone
That "someone" works as a direct object of the person that accompanies the verb. That is, it completes the information that the verb needs for us to understand the action.
Examples:
In this case the prepositiontoindicates adistance in time or spacein relation to a place as a reference.
Examples:
It's the turn of the prepositionof! This has fewer uses than the previous one, four. Do you want to meet them? Forward!
Indicates the placewhere does it come from. You can also talk about the city ornative countrywith BE + DE.
Examples:
Here the prepositionofindicatesto whom or what something belongs.
Examples:
Expressthe type of materialthat has one thing.
Examples:
Talk about thefunction or characteristicof something
Examples:
There are situations in which prepositions to and of are needed each other to give meaning to the sentence.
There are specifically 2 cases in which this happens.
When we want to express the moment in which start and finish something, we can put these prepositions together.
Of always marks the beginning, and to the end.
Axisexamples:
This use of the beginning and end of an action in time can also be expressed with prepositions since and until.
Example:
If we talk about the hours with these prepositions, we need to mark the articles. Look out there!
Example:
We can also delimit spaces or mark the beginning of a movement that starts from one place to another.
Examples:
Do you know what are verbal periphrases?
They are verbs that are made up of a personal and a non-personal form of the verb, and some have prepositions.
Some of these periphrases are:
duty of + infinitive (probability)
Finish + infinitive (very recent action)
Go to + infinitive (future plan)
Return to + infinitive (repetition of an action or habit)
In verbal periphrases, prepositions do not have any of their uses, but simply function as link between the verb and the non-personal form (infinitive, gerund or participle).
Well, well, we have already reached the end of this super article of the prepositions in spanish.
Surely now you understand its use better and your Spanish will improve a lot. We have no doubt about that.
Now it's time to practice prepositions with exercises to better assimilate everything you have learned.
We propose you two activities, one very simple and another more complex that will challenge you 😉.
In the first one you have 8 sentences in which the preposition that you must write is missing. You have the 8 prepositions in the sentence.
Now comes the most difficult activity.
This is a text in which you must write the missing prepositions, so you will have to understand the context well to know which preposition to use.
As in the previous exercise, we leave you the prepositions in the statement.
Good luck with the exercise! You can show the solution whenever you want.
Did you find it easy or difficult to work on prepositions in Spanish with these exercises?
If you think you need help with prepositions and other topics related to Spanish grammar, we recommend that you attend our classes at Hispania, Spanish school.
Our clear and dynamic way of understanding grammar characterizes us. We have a team of specialized teachers jexclusively in this, so your Spanish will be cemented from some solid foundations 🙌🏻.
Of all the prepositions, are there any that are totally new to you?
Which preposition is most difficult for you?
If you comment, we will be happy to help you.
See you next time!
Article written by Carlos Martinez for Hispania, Spanish school.
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