The Spanish language has a relatively large number of prepositions. (Spanish does not use postpositions.) The full list is traditionally recited as follows: The Spanish language uses determiners in a similar way to English. ... The Spanish language has nouns that express concrete objects, groups and classes of objects, qualities, feelings and other abstractions. ... The Spanish language has a range of pronouns that in some ways work quite differently from English ones. ... The Spanish language uses adjectives in a similar way to English and most other Indo-European languages. ... Spanish verbs are one of the most complex areas of Spanish grammar. ... Main article: Spanish verbs 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 (see the article on Spanish irregular verbs for common patterns of irregularity that may help understanding this paradigm). ... Spanish verbs are a complex area of Spanish grammar, with many combinations of tenses, aspects and moods (up to fifty conjugated forms per verb). ... This article is about the international language known as Spanish. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ... 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. ...

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

This list includes two archaic prepositions (so and cabe), but leaves out two new Latinisms (vía and pro) as well as a large number of very important compound prepositions, which are dealt with in a separate section.

All of the above prepositions derive from Latin, except hasta. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

a

Look up a in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A is an ordinary preposition meaning to or at, but it also has a number of grammatical uses: Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary is a Wikimedia Foundation project intended to be a free wiki dictionary (hence: Wiktionary) (including thesaurus and lexicon) in every language. ...

• It introduces indirect objects that in Latin would have been marked with the dative case:
  • Le envié la carta a Ana. = "I sent Ana the letter.", "I sent the letter to Ana."
  • ¿Le(s) regalaste el coche a tus padres? = "Did you give your parents the car (as a gift)?", "Did you give the car to your parents (as a gift)?"
  • Note that the indirect object pronoun le(s) appears even when the indirect object is given in full; see Spanish pronouns.
• It introduces infinitives after many verbs, though in this use it is not as common as English to:
  • Voy a enfadarme. = "I'm going to get angry."
  • Aprende no sólo a hablar sino también a escribir el castellano. = "Don't just learn to speak Spanish, but also to write it.", "Learn not just to speak but also to write Spanish."
• As one of Spanish's most basic prepositions, it is a part of many compound prepositions (see below).
• It introduces a direct object that refers to a person, or sometimes to a non-person that is seen as person-like, such as a pet or an organization:
  • Veo a María. = "I see María."
  • Te quieren ver a ti. = "They want to see you."
  • The analogy between animate direct objects and indirect objects has led to the speakers of some dialects in Spain to leísmo, loísmo and laísmo, the use of the same pronoun for both situations. The RAE regards these ismos as unstandard forms of different tolerability.
  • Written a agglutinates to form al when followed by the determinate masculine article el. Not so with él ("he") or proper nouns: Al llegar a El Escorial le verás a él ("Upon arriving to El Escorial, you will see him")

The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. ... The Spanish language has a range of pronouns that in some ways work quite differently from English ones. ... In grammar, the infinitive is the form of a verb that has no inflection to indicate person, number, mood or tense. ... Leísmo (using le) is a phenomenon in the Spanish language that involves using the indirect object pronoun le in place of the (standard) masculine direct object pronoun lo, especially when the direct object is animate. ... This article should be translated from material at es:Loísmo. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Rae was a Formula One constructor (Indy 500 only) in 1950. ... The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (in Spanish, Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial) is an immense palace, monastery, museum, and library complex located at San Lorenzo de El Escorial (also San Lorenzo del Escorial), a town 45 kilometres (28 miles) northwest of Madrid in...

con

Look up con in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Con, from the Latin CVM, has the basic meaning of "with". This preposition is rather idiosyncratic in that it combines with the personal pronouns mí, ti and sí in the following manner: conmigo, contigo, consigo. The -go suffix is in fact the same word as con. That is to say, CVM was in Latin very often placed after its pronoun like this: MECVM, TECVM, SECVM, etc. This gave migo, tigo, sigo, and also forms such as nosco and vosco that have been lost. Over time, the meaning of the -go or -co suffix was forgotten, and people started adding a redundant con- prefix to the same words. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary is a Wikimedia Foundation project intended to be a free wiki dictionary (hence: Wiktionary) (including thesaurus and lexicon) in every language. ...

We can see the same phenomenon in Italian, where one can say either con me, con te, con sé or (in archaic style) meco, teco, seco.

• Ven conmigo y con él ahora = "Come with me and him now"
• Iré a la fiesta con vosotras = "I'll come to the party with you girls"
• Es raro llevar un billete de 200€ consigo = "It's unusual to carry a €200 note around on one's person"

de

Look up de in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

De, from the Latin DE, has the basic meaning of "of" or "from". Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary is a Wikimedia Foundation project intended to be a free wiki dictionary (hence: Wiktionary) (including thesaurus and lexicon) in every language. ...

• 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 profesor = "That book is the teacher's [one]"

Written de fuses into del with a following el (the masculine determinate article) but not with the homophonous él ("he") or a proper noun, as in Soy pariente de él, del alcalde de El Escorial ("I am a relative of him, of the mayor of El Escorial"). The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (in Spanish, Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial) is an immense palace, monastery, museum, and library complex located at San Lorenzo de El Escorial (also San Lorenzo del Escorial), a town 45 kilometres (28 miles) northwest of Madrid in...

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

In old uppercase inscriptions DE formed a ligature similar to Đ. The word ligature can mean more than one thing. ... Ð, Unicode codepoint 208, U+00D0 is: Ð or Eth, a letter used in Old English and present-day Icelandic and Faroese. ...

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. = "These 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 época del año siempre llueve. = "By this time of the year it always rains."

In popular spoken Spanish para is often clipped to pa as in the very vulgar Amos p'alante ("Let's go forward") instead of the standard "Vayamos para adelante".

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')

It can be used alone as in:

• ¿Te gusta el cine francés? Según. "Do you like French cinema? It depends [on the movie, the actors,...]."

sin

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

• Un té sin leche, por favor = "A tea without milk, please"
• Se metió en la cama sin despertarla = "He got into bed without waking her up"

If we add the word que, we get the conjuction sin que, which requires the subjunctive mood: // Introduction The subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a grammatical mood of the verb that expresses wishes, commands (in subordinate clauses), emotion, possibility, judgment, necessity and statements that are contrary to fact. ...

• Se metió en la cama sin que se despertara = "He got into bed without her waking up"
• No se puede poner a esos niños en el mismo cuarto sin que se peleen. = "You can't put those children in the same room without them fighting."
• Los ladrones entraron sin que los notase nadie = "The thieves entered without anyone noticing"

A modern commercial usage is as an adjective for a "light" or no-alcohol version of a product. For example, in Back to the future, the time traveller orders a Pepsi Free in 1955. In the Spanish dubbing, he orders a "Pepsi Sin", which is misunderstood as a "Pepsi sin pagar", a "free Pepsi". This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... Martin Seamus Marty McFly is a fictional character, the lead character in the Back to the Future motion picture trilogy, played by actor Michael J. Fox in the three films and voiced by David Kaufman in the animated series. ... 1982 Pepsi Free can 1999 Caffeine-Free Pepsi can Pepsi Free was introduced in 1982 by PepsiCo, Inc. ...

Compound prepositions

Spanish has an assortment of replacements for most simple prepositions, which take the form of compound phrases: de acuerdo con for según, en dirección a for hacia, etc. They follow the same principle as English compound prepositions like in front of, on top of, 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)
  • en lugar de / en vez de = "instead of" / "in lieu of"
• Adverb + preposition, e.g.:
  • después de = "after"
  • debajo de = "underneath"
  • antes de = "before"
  • junto a = "beside" / "alongside"
  • delante de = "in front of"

One very special compound preposition is a por, meaning "for". It uniquely combines two simple prepositions. It can always be replaced by por alone; however, it helpfully allows a distinction to be made between sentences such as the following:

• Subí por la escalera = "I went up using the ladder" / "I went up the stairs"
• Subí [a] por la escalera = "I went up for the ladder" (i.e. "I went up to get the ladder")

Its use is extremely common amongst all social classes in Spain. However, the Real Academia condemns it.

There is also para con ("untowards").

Other compound prepositions include: tras de, a fuerza de, por junto a, junto a, encima de, por en medio de, detrás de, en medio de, en pos de, por delante de, con rumbo a, con destino a, a través de

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 tres kilómetros = "three kilometers away"