Spanish prepositions
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The Spanish language has a relatively large number of prepositions. (Spanish does not use postpositions.) The full list 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.
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.
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[edit] a
A is an ordinary preposition meaning to or at, but it also has a number of grammatical uses:
- 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.
- Preposition a contracts to form al when followed by the determinate masculine article el. Not so with él ("he") or proper nouns: Al llegar al pueblo lo verás a él ("Upon arriving to the town, you will see him")
[edit] con
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.
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"
[edit] 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 profesor = "That book is the teacher's [one]"
Preposition de followed by el (the masculine determinate article) contract into del, 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").
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.
[edit] 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 ti. = "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."
[edit] 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 is popularly used alone, replacing depende (depends):
- ¿Te gusta el cine francés? Según. "Do you like French cinema? It depends [on the movie, the actors,...]."
[edit] 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 conjunction sin que, which requires the subjunctive mood:
- 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"
[edit] 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 the combination para con, rarely used ("towards"/"against"/"with" somebody or something).
- Es muy generoso para con los necesitados ("he/she is very generous [towards/with] those in need")
- No tengo pruritos para con ellos ("I have nothing [against] them")
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
[edit] 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"
