Prepositions in Spanish: what are they for and how are they used?

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'll learn which 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: a y de.

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! 😁

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You can learn with the best teachers and the prestigious Método Hispania, which has received awards for years, in our face-to-face Spanish courses u online.

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Prepositions, let's get you!

What are the prepositions?

We start with the basics, a preposition definition 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 some types of links that join words and give meaning to sentences.

Un preposition example would a in the following sentence:

"I've seen a "Victor very happy." 

Many types of prepositions with uses of all kinds, we will see them right away!

What are prepositions used for?

El 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 prepositions.

Prepositions in Spanish

Now that you know more or less what prepositions are and what they are for, you are probably wondering:

«What are the prepositions in Castilian? '.

"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 of Spanish

The 19 prepositions who have been with us all their lives are: 

TO, BEFORE, UNDER, FITS, WITH, AGAINST, FROM, FROM, IN, BETWEEN, TOWARDS, TO, FOR, BY, ACCORDING TO, WITHOUT, SO, ABOUT and AFTER.

Today we will focus on a y de, 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.

• For example: voy a the store.

Ante: indicates a situation of confrontation, confrontation or position regarding something.

• For example: He remained calm doors The critics.

Bass: expresses inferior position or submission.

• For example: The soldier is with the captain's orders.

The : can talk about company,

• For example: I go to the cinema are dealt with first, followed by my friends.

Contrary to: indicates opposition, resistance or confrontation towards something or someone.

• For example: They fought against the injustice.

From: de is a preposition which also has many uses (we will see them later). One of the most common is possession.

• For example: The book is de Mary.

From: initial point in time or space.

• For example: I will travel from Valencia to Barcelona.

En: the preposition en is one of prepositions of place vocabulary more common. It is also one of the time prepositions.

• For example: En summer I'm always en the beach.

Between: expresses the relationship of several elements.

• For example: We share the cake between everyone.

To: direction or movement towards something or someone.

• For example: you walked to the beach.

To: the preposition but also indicates final place or time.

• For example: We work but also 18.00.

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).

• For example: I study Spanish for integrate into the culture.

By: for its is a preposition which has many values. The best known is causa, which can be accompanied by a noun, pronoun, adjective or infinitive.

• For example: They married for its love.

According: indicates point of view and opinion.

• For example: According to the report, sales increased.

Without: absence of something

• For example: I've been all day that aren't accompanied by eat anything

About: It can indicate a topic of conversation.

• For example: We speak about the project.

After: moment after something.

• For example: Tras class, I'll go downtown to look at some clothes.

We have not talked about be y so Why are you grammatical prepositions They have fallen into disuse and later we will dedicate a section to them.

In this list of prepositions with examples As we have done, we have included only one use of each preposition. But in reality, there are some that have many more. 

For instance, by and for They have a lot of uses that we already explained in another article.

The prepositions The most uses they have 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.

The 4 new prepositions: during, through, versus and via

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.

On:  during is a preposition which indicates the duration or amount of time in which something occurs.

• For example: We study during all the winter.

Through: the means or mode used to accomplish something.

• For example: They solved the problem through The cooperation.

Versus: indicates a comparison, contrast or confrontation.

• For example: Are you going to watch the Real Madrid game? versus Barcelona?

Vía: indicates the means by which something is done.

• For example: I will send you the document by email.

Obsolete prepositions: fit and so

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.

It should: is similar to "near" or "next to." It should is a preposition that indicates the closeness of something or someone. 

• For example: You will find the glasses be window.

So: used to indicate "below".

• For example: The cat is so the tree.

Difference between preposition and prepositional phrase

Have you heard of 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 un 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.

• For example: Before tasks in the exam, I'm going to have a coffee.

After: expresses posteriority.

• For example: I will come to see you after the job.

Through: the means or way by which something is done.

• For example: I like to look at the sea through lto window.

By dint of: something is achieved or accomplished through constant effort.

• For example: By dint of A lot of training, he became the best player on his team.

Instead of instead of: indicate a replacement or alternative.

• For example: Today I will drink tea, Instead of instead of coffee.

The most used prepositions in Spanish: A and DE

¿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 a y de. 

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!

Contractions to and from

Look at the following sentences:

«John was al market". 

«Ángela did not attend the class tasks in the Friday".

What do those mean al y tasks in the ? This is a phenomenon that only happens in these two prepositions. Are contractions. 

When these prepositions are accompanied by the article "the", these words are formed.

• Al (a + el): Today i will al mall.
• Of (of + the): This is the car tasks in the my friend's son

Therefore, tasks in the is a preposition  plus one article and al .

Values ​​of preposition A

Which is the meaning of the preposition a?

Well the truth is that many!

La preposition a has a total of 7 different values and widely used in Spanish. They are next.

Destination

This is the most common use of the preposition a. Indicates the destination or place to which we are heading. 

Can go with many movement verbs: go, come, return, arrive, go up, go down, etc.

let's see this preposition with examples:

• voy a the beach.
• She comes a school every day.
• We will be back a London next Saturday.

Dates and days of the week

If we combine the verb to be in plural and we add the preposition a, we can talk about the date or day of the week in which we find ourselves.

For example:

• Today we are at 20 September.

• Mañana we will be at Wednesday.

But attention, we will say we are in + months or seasons of the year. For example, we are in August o  we are in verano.

Schedule

We can also point out time in which an action takes place.

For example:

• class starts a 9.30.
• The movie ended a 20.00.

Purpose

A is a preposition which can also express purpose. 

Normally, we associate the use of purpose to the preposition for. But we can also do it with a when we use movement verbs: go to + do something, come to + do something, etc,

For example:

• I've come a talk to you.
• Today I'm going to the doctor a Have me do an analysis.

Talking about people with like verbs

When we use the verbs of type gustar (like, enchant, hurt, fascinate, seem...), we always put a 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 a 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.

For example:

• A Vero loves to read.
• A Ricardo is interested in History.
• A They are passionate about mathematics.

Direct complement of people

We put a in front of a person if we have the following structure: 

Subject + verb + A + someone

That «tosomeone» It works as a direct object of person that accompanies the verb. That is, it completes the information that the verb needs for us to understand the action.

For example:

• I have seen before a Paco at the fruit shop
• Have you heard a Lidia? She looks like she is very angry.

Distances in time or space

In this case the preposition a indicates one distance in time or space in relation to a place as a reference.

For example:

• My house is a ten minutes from here.
• My house is a one kilometer from the school.

Values ​​of the preposition DE

It's the turn of the preposition de! This has fewer uses than the previous one, four. Do you want to meet them? Forward!

Origin / provenance

Indicates the place where does it come from. You can also talk about the city or native country with BE + DE.

For example: 

• She comes de the barber shop.
• Yo soy de España.

Possession

Here the preposition de indicates to whom or what something belongs.

For example:

• This book is de Paula.
• These are the keys de house.

Materials

Express the type of material that has one thing.

For example:

• This table is de timber.
• Your watch is de gold.

function or characteristic 

Talk about the function or characteristic Of something. 

For example:

• Roberto is a machine de make money.
• She already has her dress de girlfriend.
• Tomorrow I start my classes de Spanish.

DE and A together

There are situations in which prepositions a y de are needed each other to give meaning to the sentence.

There are specifically 2 cases in which this happens.

Express beginning and end of a period of time

When we want to express the moment in which start and finish something, we can put these prepositions together. 

De always marks the beginning, and a the end.

Axisexamples:

• The match was de 18.00 a 20.00
• I was on vacation de August a September.

This use of the beginning and end of an action in time can also be expressed with prepositions from y but also.

For example:

• Traveled through Latin America from April but also October.

If we talk about the hours with these prepositions, we need to mark the determined articles . Look out there!

For example:

• From the 14.00 until 15.00:XNUMX p.m. there are hardly any people on the street.

Delimit a space

We can also delimit spaces or mark the beginning of a movement that starts from one place to another. 

For example:

• De Valencia a Madrid is 356 kilometers long.
• I'm going by train de Valencia a Santander.

A and DE in verbal periphrases

Do you know what the verbal periphrasis?

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)

• Marcos hasn't come to work. He must de be sick.

Finish + infinitive (very recent action)

• I just de get home.

Go to + infinitive (future plan)

• This weekend I'm going a go to the field.

Return to + infinitive (repetition of an action or habit)

• I haven't returned it a see since we argued.

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).

Prepositions exercises

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.