The Spanish language has a range of prepositions that are comparable to those of English. Unlike some languages, Spanish does not use postpositions or more exotic features. This article is about the international language known as Spanish. ... There are two main names given to the Spanish language: Spanish and Castilian. This article explains the usage, history and connotations of these two terms, and some others. ... The Spanish language was developed from vulgar Latin, with influence from Basque and Arabic, in the north of Iberian Peninsula (see Iberian Romance languages). ... Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but no noun declension and limited pronominal declension. ... Spanish verbs are one of the most complex areas of Spanish grammar. ... Main article: Spanish verbs See also: Spanish grammar This is a paradigm of Spanish verbs, that is, a set of conjugation tables, for the model regular verbs and for some of the most common irregular verbs. ... Spanish verbs are a complex area of Spanish grammar, with many combinations of tenses, aspects and moods (up to fifty conjugated forms per verb). ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The Spanish alphabet consists of the following 27 letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, Ñ, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z It has the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet plus the letter Ñ, representing a voiced... This article is about the international language known as Spanish. ... In grammar, a preposition is a type of adposition, a grammatical particle that establishes a relationship between an object (usually a noun phrase) and some other part of the sentence, often expressing a location in place or time. ... A postposition is a type of adposition, a grammatical particle that expresses some sort of relationship between a noun phrase (its object) and another part of the sentence; an adpositional phrase functions as an adjective or adverb. ...

The full list of Spanish prepositions is traditionally recited as follows:

a, ante, bajo, cabe, con, contra, de, desde, durante, en, entre, hacia, hasta, mediante, para, por, según, sin, so, sobre, tras.

However, this does leave out a large number of very important compound prepositions, which we deal with in a separate section.

Note also that all of the above prepositions derive from Latin except for hasta.

a

A, from the Latin AD, has the basic meaning of "to" or "at".

Personal a

As in English, in Spanish the direct object of a sentence usually gets no preposition. The only exception to this is when the direct object is a person, in which case it gets the preposition a.

• Veo el árbol. = "I see the tree."
• Veo a María. = "I see María."

As an extension of this rule, when something is perceived to share some human qualities it may also get the preposition a. Pets are very likely to get it, while other animals won't. Organizations made out of people such as political parties or associations will also get it.

• Veo al perro. "I see the dog."
• Aprecia mucho a su empresa. "He esteems his company very much."

ante

Ante, from the Latin ANTE, has the basic meaning of "before", "in front of".

• Estoy ante la montaña. "I'm in front of the mountain."
• Me quito el sombrero ante usted. "I take my hat off before you."

bajo

Bajo, from the Latin BASSVS, has the basic meaning of "under".

cabe

Cabe, a contraction of a cabo de, in turn from the Latin AD, CAPVT and DE, means "alongside". It is rather archaic, and is not very used in modern spoken Spanish.

It is not to be confused with cabe from the verb caber.

con

Con, from the Latin CVM, has the basic meaning of "with".

contra

Contra, from the Latin CONTRA, has the basic meaning of "against".

• Contra todo pronóstico = "Against all odds"
• Mujer contra mujer = "Woman against woman" (a song by Ana Torroja)

Ana Torroja is a Spanish vocalist, and was the lead singer of the million-selling trio Mecano. ...

de

De, from the Latin DE, has the basic meaning of "of" or "from".

• Es la más famosa de todas = "She's the most famous [one] of all [of them]"
• Soy de Madrid = "I'm from Madrid"

It is also the equivalent of the possessive 's in English. For example:

• El clima cálido de España = "Spain's warm climate"
• La hermana de David = "David's sister"
• Ese libro es el del profe = "That book is the teacher's [one]"

De is part of many compound prepositions, such as dentro de and en contra de. See below.

desde

Desde, from the Latin DE, EX and DE, has the basic meaning of "from" or "since".

• Desde que te conocí = "Since I met you"
• Desde Argentina hasta Mexico = "From Argentina to Mexico"

durante

During, from the Latin DVRANS, has the basic meaning of "during" or "for".

• Nació durante la segunda guerra mundial. = "He was born during the second world war."

en

En, from the Latin IN, has the basic meaning of "in" or "on".

• Lo dejé en la mesa. = "I left it on the table."
• Vivo en España. = "I live in Spain."

entre

Entre, from the Latin INTER, has the basic meaning of "between" or "among(st)".

• La nariz está entre los ojos. = "The nose is between the eyes."
• Es más fácil entre amigos. = "It's easier among friends."

hacia

Hacia, from the Latin FACIES AD, means "towards" and is often replaced by shorter a (with the meaning of "to").

• Un camino hacia la paz mundial. = "A path towards world peace."

hasta

Hasta, from the Arabic hatta, has the basic meaning of "until" or "up to". Arabic (العربية) is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ...

• Vamos hasta la cima. = "Let's go up to the top."
• Dormí hasta las nueve. = "I slept until nine o'clock."

mediante

Mediante, from the Latin MEDIANS, means "by means of" or "through". It is more or less restricted to formal use (it is comfortably replaced by por medio de)

por and para

Por is a mixture of the Latin PER and PRO. Para is in turn a corruption of por a. They both have several translations.

These two prepositions cause much confusion for learners, as they both translate "for" in English. According to Cassell's Contemporary Spanish, in general, por indicates cause or reason (looks backwards), while para indicates purpose or destination (looks forwards). Common instances of para and por are indicated below.

para

• Purpose (intended for)

  Estas flores son para tí. = "This flowers are for you."

  Lo lavé para que lo guardaras. = "I washed it so you can keep it."

• Destination (towards) (informal, used instead of a or hacia)

  Voy para el sur. = "I'm going south.

• Until, by (a certain time)

  'Para esta epoca del año siempre llueve. = "By this time of the year it always rains."

por

• Refers to time or place in a general sense

  Lo perdí por ahí. = "I lost it around there."

• In exchange for, in place of

  Cambié mis euros por dólares. = "I exchanged my euros for dollars."

• Per (day, hour, mile, etc.)

  Pagan 1 euro por hora. = "They pay 1 euro per hour."

• By means of

  Es más rápido por la autopista. = "It's faster by the motorway."

• Cause (porque = "because")

  Lo hice porque tenía que hacerlo. "I did it because I had to."

• For the sake or benefit of

  Todo lo que hago, lo hago por tí. = "Everything I do, I do it for you."

• In favour of

  Yo voto por el partido de izquierda. = "I vote for the left-wing party."

según

Según, from the Latin SECVNDVM, has the basic meaning of "according to". Unlike that English preposition however, it can be followed by a verb without the need for a word like "what".

• Según dice él, es un buen libro = "According to him (literally 'according to [what] he says'), it's a good book"
• Según convenga = "As required" (literally 'according to [what] is appropriate')

sin

Sin, from the Latin SINE, has the basic meaning of "without".

so

So, from the Latin SVB, is almost as rare as cabe, surviving only in certain set phrases such as so pena de muerte... ("on pain of death"). Also: so pretexto de, so capa de, so color de.

sobre

Sobre, from the Latin SVPER, has the basic meaning of "on", "on top of".

tras

Tras, from the Latin TRANS, ("behind", "after") may be found in written language but is rare in speaking. It, and the much more common prepositions bajo ("beneath") and sobre ("on"), can also be replaced with phrases (compound prepositions): detrás de or atrás de, abajo de or debajo de, arriba de or encima de, or luego de.

• Tras los árboles se oculta el enemigo. = "Behind the trees hides the enemy."
• Tras tan larga travesía me senté a descansar. = "After such a long ride, I sat down to rest."

Compound prepositions

Like English, Spanish has an assortment of such replacements for most simple prepositions: de acuerdo con for según, en dirección a for hacia, etc. Sobre ("on") is often preferred as a less ambiguous alternative to en, which can mean either "on" or "in".

When a concept can be expressed by a simple preposition or a compound one, either can be more common or more formal. For example, después de is more common than tras, but para is more common than con la finalidad de.

Compound prepositions are typically made up of:

• Preposition + noun + preposition, e.g.:
  • por causa de / a causa de / en razón de = "because of"
  • sin prejuicio de = "notwithstanding" / "without prejudice to"
  • con respecto a = "with respect to" / "regarding"
  • a favor de = "in favour of"
  • en contra de = "against" (note: en mi contra, en tu contra, etc)
• Adverb + preposition, e.g.:
  • después de = "after"
  • debajo de = "underneath"
  • antes de = "before"
  • junto a = "beside" / "alongside"

Translating English postpositions

English has the feature of having three postpositions. This means that in addition to saying thing like "in the box", "on the aeroplane", "out of Africa"... just like Spanish, we can also say things like "Three years ago". If we treat such words as prepositions, we get nonsense sentences like *"ago three years". The following sentences should demonstrate how Spanish expresses the same concepts using only prepositions:

• Hace tres años = "three years ago"
• Dentro de tres años = "three years hence"
• A cinco kilómetros = "three miles away"