Basic Prepositions in Spanish: A Guide to Start from Scratch

What is a preposition?

Prepositions are words that join other words and tell us how they are related, that is, they give us indications of place, origin, destination, time, company and many more things. They are invariable words, that is, they have neither gender nor grammatical number, so, good news, they are always written the same way. The most used in Spanish are a, de, en, con, sin, desde, hasta, para, por, sobre and entre. Let’s go one by one.

A.

The preposition a indicates direction or destination, that is, movement toward some place.

Todas las mañanas voy a la escuela.
Every morning I go to school.

Mañana viajamos a Montevideo.
Tomorrow we travel to Montevideo.

It is also used to indicate the time at which something happens.

La clase es a las 9.
The class is at 9.

El concierto es a medianoche.
The concert is at midnight.

In other cases it introduces the complements of certain verbs, adjectives and nouns: empezar a escribir (to start writing), tener miedo a las arañas (to be afraid of spiders) (or temer a) (to fear), dedicarse a vender (to do sales for a living), etc. This list is long and yes, you have to learn these expressions by heart.

It is used to introduce the indirect object.

Le doy un regalo a mi hermana.
I give a gift to my sister.

Le vendí mi auto a mi vecino.
I sold my car to my neighbor.

Here you can read more about the indirect object in Spanish.

A particular case is the direct object when it is a person or, for example, an animal that is personified, as is the case with pets. In those cases the direct object must be introduced with the preposition a, the so-called personal a. Thus, we say veo a Marta (I see Marta) or le di comida al perro (I gave food to the dog) but veo la televisión (I watch television).

These are not all the uses of this preposition, but they are the most frequent.

De.

Its most frequent uses, although not all, are to indicate possession, origin and material.

Posesión: Ese libro es de Ana.
Possession: That book is Ana’s.

Origin: Soy de Uruguay (I am from Uruguay). In this case, preceded by the verb ser, it indicates nationality. But it is also used to indicate the origin of, for example, a trip, without indicating nationality: vengo de Londres (I come from London) indicates that I traveled from London to where I am now, but not necessarily that I am a Londoner.

Material: la mesa es de madera.
Material: the table is made of wood.

It also introduces the subject or topic of something: un libro de historia (a history book), una clase de química (a chemistry class), están hablando de fútbol (they are talking about soccer).

Again, these are not all its functions, but they are the most frequent.

En.

The preposition en is used to indicate the location of something or someone, without movement.

Estoy en casa.
(I am at home).

El auto está en el garage.
(The car is in the garage).

It is also used with months, years, seasons and particular events of the year.

En Julio hace frío.
(In July it is cold).

Nací en 1993.
(I was born in 1993).

Tengo vacaciones en primavera.
I have vacation in spring.

La conocí en Navidad.
(I met her at Christmas).

The trick for a vs en: if there is movement we use a, if there is not we use en: voy a la playa (I am going to the beach), estoy en la playa (I am at the beach).

Con y sin.

They are opposites and their use is quite simple.

Con: it implies the presence of something, which can be company, the instrument with which something is done or the circumstances in which an action is carried out.

Vivo con mis padres.
(I live with my parents).

Escribo con un lápiz.
(I write with a pencil).

Lo hice con miedo.
(I did it with fear).

Note: the personal pronouns of the first and informal second person singular (yo, tú), when preceded by a preposition, become, respectively, mí and ti (a mí, hacia ti, sin mí, sobre ti). In the case of being preceded by con there is an exception: they join the preposition and become, respectively, conmigo (with me) and contigo (with you).

Sin: it denotes absence or lack of something.

Prefiero el café sin azúcar.
(I prefer coffee without sugar).

No me gustan los días sin sol.
(I do not like days without sun).

If it precedes a verb in the infinitive it negates the verbal action, that is, it is equivalent to no.

Te llamé sin querer. (No quería llamarte).
I called you without meaning to. (I did not want to call you).

Me fui a trabajar sin dormir. (No dormí).
I went to work without sleeping. (I did not sleep).

Desde y hasta.

These prepositions mark the beginning and the end of a span of time or of a movement.

Trabajo desde las 8 hasta las 5.
(I work from 8 until 5).

Todos los días camino desde mi casa hasta el parque.
(Every day I walk from my house to the park).

With desde one can also indicate the start of an action in the past that continues in the present: vivo aquí desde 2015 (I have lived here since 2015). Here you can read more about that topic.

With hasta one can indicate the maximum limit of a quantity: bebo hasta dos litros de agua por día (I drink up to two liters of water per day), estoy dispuesto a pagar hasta cien dólares por ese trabajo (I am willing to pay up to one hundred dollars for that job).

Por y para.

These are the two prepositions that cause the most headaches for those who learn the Spanish language. We will see a short summary here: here you can read more about these prepositions in detail.

Para: it indicates purpose or destination. Estudio para aprender. (I study to learn). Este regalo es para ti. (This gift is for you).

Por: it denotes cause, means or place of transit. No salí por la lluvia. (I did not go out because of the rain). Te llamo por teléfono. (I call you by phone). Cuando voy a trabajar paso por el centro. (When I go to work I pass through downtown).

As a general rule, which is not always exact, we can say that para looks to the future and por to the past, but I recommend that you read the article about these prepositions.

Sobre y entre.

Sobre has two main uses: it indicates that one thing is above another, and it indicates the topic of something.

Posición: el libro está sobre la mesa.
Position: the book is on the table.

Tema: tuvimos una conversación muy interesante sobre música.
Topic: we had a very interesting conversation about music.

Entre indicates that one thing is in the middle of two others.

La farmacia está entre el banco y el café.
The pharmacy is between the bank and the café.

It also denotes cooperation or reciprocity.

Entre todos redactaron la respuesta.
They all wrote the answer together.

Hablaron entre ellos.
They talked among themselves.

These are not the only functions of this preposition, but they are the most frequent.

Las contracciones al y del.

In Spanish there are two mandatory contractions: the preposition a, followed by the article el becomes al, and the preposition de becomes del.

Voy al cine. (No “voy a el cine”).
I am going to the movies.

Vengo del trabajo (No “vengo de el trabajo”).
I come from work.

This only happens with the article el. It does not happen with la, los or las. Vengo de la casa de mis padres. I come from my parents’ house.

I hope this article has been useful to you. Of course, as I have repeated several times throughout this article, the uses of the prepositions gathered here are an introduction to the most frequent ones. In future articles we will see many more, but I think this has been enough information to introduce this topic. Here I leave you exercises to practice this topic. Thank you for reading!